I'm back.

Yes. I'm back. Indeed. :)

HW36- Pregnancy and Birth Stories

NOTE: This is my final blog post (for now). I will not have internet access at any time in The Bahamas, so if you have any comments or feedback to THIS blog post (or any other for that matter), please send me a letter to the mailing address I've posted in the last post.

As I've stated before my mom had quite the different experiences when it came to giving birth to Josh and me. Before even giving birth, she had some initial problems. After the doctors noticed her blown-up legs and blood pressure, she was advised to be admitted in the hospital the next day. However, figuring that nothing serious was amiss, she went back home and spent the better part of the next day cleaning. When she finally decided it was time to go to the hospital, she was scorned by the doctors for showing up so late. Apparently it was one of those "emergency situations"; she was immediately strapped down to a table. At one distinct point she remembers a bunch of residents around her asking, "are you excited about having that baby tonight?", where she thought "I'm not having my baby tonight... I'm only 33 weeks in..." Needless to say it was an intense experience, Josh being born by cesarian-section and pre-mature at the same time. Josh's heart rate had at one point dropped quite significantly, and the effect of the birth on my mom was disastrous. She was forced to fast (with the exception of the rare ice chip for hydration) for two days, and was made to stay in the hospital for a grand total of 10 days to recover.

In hindsight, this was obviously a scarring experience. The fact that the birth not only nearly cost her life but the baby's affected her both physically and emotionally, and I can see why it would have. To go through all of the pain, to have the chance of regret (by not going to the hospital sooner), to have survived the odds, I would have certainly changed as well. Exactly how she changed, I am not certain of. I would imagine that the experience is part of the reason (either that or my parents had a moment of genius, or both) that she waited 5 years to give birth (to me) again. Also I could totally see her cleaning the house when she's literally about to give birth- the quintessential image of mom (sorry mom, :) I am only kidding of course).

In contrast, my birth was fairly easy and simple compared to Josh's... though it wasn't a walk in the park (or a cleaning of the house). My mom was now 42, which made the doctors fairly wary due to her past birth experiences. Josh, who was now 5 was also feeling quite sick (and would go on to throw up all over the bed). At the hospital, many of the pregnant women (including my mom) were given a certain drug to speed up the process of the birth. The intention of said drug was to make sure my mom did not go past her due date, and to avoid complications. However, much to everyone's surprise, only an hour after being given the drug many of the patients went into labor. Shortly thereafter, my mom went into labor herself! This effect that the drug had was not expected, and the quiet birth ward soon became a ballet of moving beds and a symphony of shrieks. The birth itself was everything BUT her first experience, a straightforward, standard giving of life.

From what I know, this particular experience pretty much undid the nervousness and overall emotional damage created by Josh's birth. I could imagine how frightened my mom was before delivering me, thinking about all of the tragic possibilities she was so lucky to evade the first time around. I guess I should be happy that nothing DID go wrong!! I should also take this time to thank you, mom. When it comes to the time spacing between Josh and I, I really do think 5 years is the perfect difference. I feel like (and this could turn into its own separate post entirely) only children really do miss out on something by not having a brother or sister, and unfortunately most of the time when there ARE siblings there is tension and competition. However, when there is a good amount of time between the two (4-6 years is best IMO), there is not really ever competition because they will almost never be in the same school, and mostly interested in other things. That being said, the older one usually takes on a leadership role for the younger, and the two will still have the close relationship that siblings have.

My aunt K had very different birth experiences. Having already gone through a miscarriage, she had experience in the less forgiving side of birth. When she gave birth to my cousin D, however, it was a very different outcome. Having already gone into labor, my aunt insisted that rather than be taken to the hospital, she be taken to her personal doctor for a check-up. The poor police officers didn't exactly know what to do, but eventually they did as she ordered, and took her to her doctor. Well what do you know! The doctor said she should go right to the hospital! And so she flagged down a taxi and drove to the hospital. It turns out that she arrived in the nick of time, giving birth immediately after arriving. Other than this anecdote... there were no complications.

Of all three birth stories this one seems to me like the one we all imagine, the one we see in the movies and read in the books. Nothing in particular went wrong, but it seemed like there were moments of drama and anticipation that all "normal" births seem to have in our dominant society. Furthermore, like my mom's giving of birth to me, it seems to have undone whatever trauma was created by the first experience.

If I were here, I'd really like to know what stigmas there are associated with birth, and perhaps more specifically, what/why stigmas apply to teen births/pregnancies.

Farewell. And Mailing Address!

I would just like to formally say goodbye here on my blog. I want to thank all of you guys who have read my blog, left feedback or just supported me in general. I really appreciate each and every one of you, even if you didn't make it a thing to leave comments. Andy, of all the things I will be leaving behind here, your class under the fluorescent lights in that cave of yours will be genuinely missed. I will miss all of you, and take the memory of you all with me. I am sure that I will return with all kinds of stories to tell and a tan that will put you all to shame. :D

Seriously though, I will miss reading all of your blogs, and please, PLEASE feel free to send me letters or updates on the class, or just to say hi. Below I've included the mailing address for The Island School... there is one discrepancy however- they don't accept packages. So please keep stuff in a nice neat envelope. Oh and also make it clear that the letter is meant for me. Like put my name on it. :)

The Island School
C/O Twin Air
3406 S.W. 9th Avenue
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33315

HW35- Other People's Perspectives

Teenagers are crazy, curious beings in our society. Vastly opinionated and emotionally driven to places and fantasies we can only imagine, we are most certainly. Thus we arrive at the subject of birth, a moment of life that turns the pages of time and carves our lineage onto the very bark of the family tree. Us adolescents, similarly to death, are mostly unfamiliar with the phenomenon, and can only rely on the audio and video that plays in our heads. These visuals we imagine come mostly from two sources, one primary and one secondary: as teenagers we have all (for the most part) heard our "birth" stories, and as teenagers we have all (for the most part) have watched taped "births" in the classroom or in the movies. While these media can serve as a basic tool to familiarize ourselves with the sensation that is birth, none can hold a candle to the actual thing, and in contrast to the cartoonish, comic-like portrayal of birth we see in the movies, the real deal is incomparable.

In my interviews of my peers I found that for the most part we all imagine how we'd like our experiences (or non-experiences) of birth to be, but that nobody knows what to really expect. I noticed that great respect and recognition was given to the role of the woman, such as when Henry Guss told me, "Men don't have to shoot an 8-point idiotic brat out of their vagina." Clearly the role of the woman in a birth is a challenge, as Lawrence Wong stated "women are willing to go through much pain to have children, this means love." When it comes to the dominant fears I saw in my interviewees on birth, the general consensus was that the worst case scenario would be the death of the child or the mother, or both. I find this really interesting because it seems like individually, birth and death can both be seen as beautiful things... but when combined it is a horrifying scene to behold.

My first interview was with Bianca Chiu. I have decided to talk about this interview specifically in its own paragraph because according to the two male interviewees, the woman's role and experience is more important than that of men. And also because she said some particularly interesting things! The first and perhaps most striking statement that she made was that pregnancy itself is often overlooked... AND underlooked at the same time. "A lot of times pregnancy is over-thought, such as how to use guys or books to their maximum usage," she stated, and I thought about how easily one's experience can be influenced by resources inspired by other births. It goes to show how intertwined women's experiences are in general when it comes to birth, and how we all make connections and give credibility to those who have already gone through such experiences. On the other hand, according to Bianca, the process can also be grossly underlooked and even under-appreciated when we divert our attention too far from the life inside ourselves. Another interesting point regarding stigmas that she brought up was the significance of stretch marks. In the eyes of one, stretch marks can be viewed as a gross, embarrassing artifact of the pain and less-glorious aspects of the birthing process. In the eyes of another, these marks serve as "battle wounds", something to be honored and prized as a symbol of life, bravery and heroism. As a male, I don't know what I would think about stretch marks in the woman's shoes, but I guess I would say I would be happy to be reminded of my accomplishment.

All in all, I found that us "wild" and hormonally driven teenagers can be quick to spit out opinions and generalizations about birth, but when we grab the thought bubbles by the throat and dig within, we simply cannot get past a certain wall of uncertainty, where we can only speculate. In reality, not many of us can really personally connect to birth other than our own beginnings... but realistically how much of that can we faithfully remember or connect to? Personally, before and after the interviews I knew the answer: NONE of it. When we relay our "birth stories" in our minds, we don't see the events as they happened, instead we see an abstract illustration of what we've been lead to believe by cartoony representations. We are an ambitious generation, and we have grand visions of what we would like to see in our own stories. All that can be said is all that can be seen, and we have yet to see or hear "birth" with our thinking caps on.

HW34- Some Initial Thoughts on Birth

In contrast to the former Illness and Dying unit, in which I had many connections and stories to tell and things to say, I know absolutely nothing about birth. I have never given birth, nor have I ever caused anyone else to give birth (not that I know of at least). In any case, I am disappointed that I won't be here for the unit, especially because Andy says this is his favorite one to teach and also because I feel like this is new territory. I really WANT to know about birth and its intricacies and controversies, so hopefully one day I will fully understand the significance and symbolism of such a monumental chapter in life, and maybe one day know what it means to be a father. I've heard stories about my own birth (and my brother's), and from what I've heard, it's a very stressful and invigorating experience. I also got a sense of how different two births can be, and what can go wrong in the process.

When my mother had my brother (this could be the start of a really cool rap but I digress...) she had one of the hands down worst experiences of her life. Josh was premature, AND needed to be given birth by c-section. In addition, my mom was not expected to survive the ordeal (which is a frightening thought to me... where would I be?) and was pretty much scarred from the experience. HOWEVER... 5 years later when she had me everything played out nicely, and this positive experience changed her attitude entirely, calming her down. Needless to say we both turned out perfectly fine (generally) and grew up to be talented and well-doing kids.

Obviously I have many questions about birth, . Probably the most general of questions would be, 'what does it feel like to give birth?', as in what will I feel when I become a father? Will there be this big swirl of emotion and crashing waves of joy? Will I feel the weight of responsibility on my shoulders at a sudden moment? Will I have one of those moments where I look around and don't understand anything? Will I cry? Will I laugh? Will I be there? My next major question is what do imagine my child to be like? I think one of the major topics of interest we will explore this unit will be how people have this fetish for making their children 'perfect' or 'just like me', when there are unfortunate stories of how families, relationships and lives can be destroyed when a deformed or disabled child is birthed. I am very interested in this particular aspect, especially because we neglected to investigate mental illness in the last unit.

One more thing (for my thinking/writing team).

It appears I will not have ANY computer access in the Bahamas. I am dearly interested in this unit, and It would be AWESOME if one of you guys could send me letters summarizing what we covered in class. I would really appreciate it, because even in a tropical paradise I really don't want to miss this, and I'm sure Andy would count it as part of Open Honors or something. Kc or Eloise (or anyone who wants to for that matter), if you are interested please talk to me and I can give you a mailing address.

HW33- Closing I&D Comments

My comment on Casey's HW32-

lol with the formatting, not sure what happened there :P

Excellent job connecting the unit with the "Invisible hand", a term that wasn't uttered once in the last month! And you are completely right! The conservatives (the ones who have the military preferred view you cited) have this fetish with military spending so they can pulverize other nations and act as the "tough guy" while behind their backs our OWN people are withering away.

I wish it were as easy as spending in the right places, and maybe this IS the most practical way of doing things in our current situation. But I think overall we need a reassessment of what our biggest enemy is: sickness (and not the spending fetish kind, the physical and sometimes mental (which was surprisingly hardly discussed at all this unit... parenthesis in parenthesis ftw...) kind). People are acting as if money is all what has kept us advancing in science... when it's really only ALLOWING us to continue (because money has "stuff" value)- the KNOWLEDGE has been with us all along. If it weren't for corruption and research was free to do... we probably would be much further along.

Great post to cap off an awesome blog for this unit!
Evan

My comment on Eloise's HW32-

My goodness! I almost forgot about you Eloise! Sorry xD

You have some really strong ideas here (the structures of power Andy mentioned, game of fighting evils, neutrality, etc.) but your overall post seems like it was cut short! I would have really liked to read your thoughts on certain examples or more in-depth explanations (you deal a ton of absolutes in this post, before you make such statements you should dig deep). Anywho, your ideas themselves are concrete, and the whole thing was articulated well for the short length of the post- though it left me wanting more.

I look forward to reading you blog in the next unit (for the short time that I'll actually be here...),

Evan

Casey's comment on MY HW32-

Evan,
Your post raised some interesting questions. Why do you say that "When man is dropped into a world where time is limited..he brings suffering and doom upon the weaker population out of fear, not hatred." Who embodies the weaker population? What evidence from the unit led you to this idea of fear vs. hatred? You're first paragraph contains much potential for being very meaningful to the reader, but I do not completely understand your reasoning behind your insights.
My favorite sentence was "In a sense we all contribute to how the world turns out to be each and every day" because this knowledge is not only interesting and potentially encouraging, but also an inspiration for acting in a way that will benefit the world.

Eloise's comment on MY HW32-

Mom's comment on MY HW32-

I think what you meant by your opening is that what man fears most is death, and that man has the capacity for great cruelty when he feels his existence or well-being is threatened; I quite agree. I loved the way you expounded on the way each of us affects all of us. And I particularly loved the reference to music and poetry as some of the conveyors with which we transfer our knowledge, our feelings, linking the whole of humanity through generations and time. Mom

Aaron's comment on MY HW32-

I AM SO SORRY FOR POSTING THIS SO LATE! I didn't get your text message till today! I will try my best to never let this happen. Sorry if it is too late to comment! Anyway, the quote "People are acting as if money is all what has kept us advancing in science... when it's really only ALLOWING us to continue (because money has "stuff" value)- the KNOWLEDGE has been with us all along. If it weren't for corruption and research was free to do... we probably would be much further along." stands out to me. It shows that we aren't fully using all what we have. We have the money to advance in science, but not everything needs money. I agree we could get much more research for science if it didn't have a cost.

HW 32- Thoughts following Illness & Dying Unit

After months of studying the dominant social practice(s) on illness and dying, I've come to the conclusion that no matter what approach we have to avoiding death, we are always fighting the "long defeat" (in the words of Dr. Paul Farmer), and that when man is dropped into a world where his time is limited and his brothers and sisters are falling around him, he brings suffering and doom upon the weaker population out of fear, not hatred. It is obvious that nobody wants to die, because we find much beauty and grace in the world around us. However, humans can be very clever beings, and sometimes they will reason to lead others to their demise in order to save their own skin. Why though, would they do this when they realize the irony of their situation? It is because humans are also capable of detachment, and incapable of fully understanding another's point of view.

Although we can try to make death less painful through the idea of religion and process of home hospice, it remains a nightmare because it is the essential unknown. Nobody can or ever will know the meaning or purpose or follow-up to death, and as much as us rational thinkers can try to deduce a theory or comfort ourselves with ideas such as "everything happens for a reason" or "this is only the beginning of the journey" no one person has more credibility on the subject than another. What we DO know for sure though, is that we possess the ability to make a difference beyond our time, creating a "rippling" effect by changing the lives and accompanying the journeys of our children, grandchildren, friends, acquaintances and even enemies, which in many ways CAN make us live on forever. We will live on in the songs sung by the future, the poems written beyond our time, the discoveries that wait ahead- in a sense we ALL contribute to how the world turns out to be each and every day. One day generations hundreds of years into the future will look back and say, "Thank you Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa Evan, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here today."