AWOB Outline

I. Introduction
• Normal vs. Natural Births (Venn Diagram notes)
• What is the American Way of Birth?
• Briefly explain the sources: interviews, videos, BoBB, guest speakers, reading, research
• Thesis (very possible that it will be revised): Similar to the many other aspects of the American Way of Life, the American Way of Birth is a source of alienation to life itself. As we follow the AWOL, we are slowly drifting away from what life has to offer us, and the AWOB is just an example of that.

II. How We Perceive Births
• Julia Kristeva: Crossing boundaries and birth
• My own initial thoughts about birth
• Quote from MD-Midwife in Disguise: “I didn’t start medical school with a lot of fear about birth. My mother talked about birth being hard work- painful, ye, but an intensely physical experience with a tremendous reward when the work was done”
• Cesarean section Rates and process: Risen 43% since 1996 Fear of stretching and pain

III. Information about Normal Hospital Births
• The general process
• How births are treated in hospitals- Response to Monty Python skit, interviews, Ms. Plaza
• Doctor convience: position, timing, c-sections
• Interventions (BoBB): Domino effect of epiduralpitocinepidural…
Cesarean section/vacuum
• Hospitals = businesses
• MD- Midwife in Disguise (pg. 114)

IV. Information about Natural Births
• Dolphin and giraffe birth videos
• Midwifery (BoBB)- “assist” the birth
• How the mothers are treated by the midwives
• Guest speaker: Kaitlyn- protecting the transition of going from being a woman to being a mother
• Guest speaker: Shira

V. Direct Comparison between Normal and Natural birth
• Focus of Birth Stories (Interviews vs. MD-midwife in disguise)
• How the mothers/children are treated during and after the birth process (BoBB/Shira/Plaza)
• “machine” and “cow” vs. mother
• Incubator vs. Oxitocin moment (Ms. Plaza/BoBB/Shira)
• Fear and pain vs. “Orgasmic birth”
• Do we really need a monitored environment and interventions to give birth? (Birth videos)

VI. Alienation through the AWOB
• MD- Midwife in Disguise (pg. 113)
• Awareness during hospital births (both vaginal births and c-sections)
• (http://www.drspock.com/article/0,1510,4521,00.html)