HW 41 - Independent Research

Government support for pregnant women and mothers in poverty - if you're poor and becoming a mother in NYC what programs could help you and how would you apply?

Being a single parent anywhere is tedious, but for women it can be a lot harder or a bit easier depending on their situation. Most single parents in the United States always have the option to apply for government assistance, depending on their situation. The situations most Americans have to be in when applying for government assistance, is that they have to make a certain amount, which is normally minimum wage or below the poverty line, the other is the amount of children they have, another main one is disability. It’s great that in the United States people can get support from the government, but at the same time it barely helps everyone or make the parents situation easier. If someone has a college degree, and is a single parent, and is middle class that person may not be eligible for government assistance because of what they make, when in reality what they make barely helps them make ends meet, because of bills, school loans, taxes, etc. While someone who’s below the poverty line has a subsidized rent and pays less on their taxes, still makes ends meet because they can’t make over a certain amount or else they may lose their benefits. But why is that, why must single parents have limited opportunities in order to make just ends meet? When someone is on public assistance they’re recertified every quarter in order to keep their public assistance, until they get a job and are settled. Once someone on public assistance gets a job, they’re public assistance ends. One of the reasons the government doesn’t let anyone get public assistance is because they’re worried too many people would get comfortable and not work, and for the people who have jobs and could use the extra help because they have a job, and the policy is that when one is working they’re not allowed to be assisted than they won’t be eligible.




Sources:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4693124_government-assistance-single-mothers.html

HW 40 - Insights from Book - Part 3

The Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent, is a great to read if anyone wants to understand more about midwifery and birth. From beginning to end to end the book explains different scenarios of birth stories, which answers every birthing question one may have. Vincent once being a midwife, is what I think makes this story really detailed, because it's different when an author actually had the experience of what they're story is about, and when an author writes about something they've heard. Ms. Vincent working at a nursery hospital was also a bit unique , because most midwifes have to get certified and work independently, but i think because she worked at a hospital she has a broader view than most midwifes.

What i like about this book is when she quotes the things mother think, say or do when they're in labor, because normally it's not always as dramatic as television portrays it. "I felt that curling-over at the top as my uterus began to bear down like giant tooth paste tube being emptied" - Pg. 136. One of the many odd things I've heard to describe labor, but at the same time it's unique. During this birthing unit we watched a film called the business of being born, and it was very similar to the baby catcher, but didn't show many details, when it came to what the father or men thought during the whole process. From what I've seen the father always wants to help and do something, and tries to be supportive, but always seem a bit stunned. "The sudden spurt of blood shocked Joe" -Pg. 145. What stuns me sometimes is when the mother is in labor and deals with it really well, while everyone else is panicking asking if she's "ok" or if she "needs anything" and the mothers answer is "I'm not afraid, i'm fine, this is just really really interesting" - Ph. 216 and than the mother pushes the baby out and all done.

By the end of the book, Peggy Vincent doesn't try to change peoples mind about where to have their children or how to have them, but she helps lengthen readers knowledge about the myths about what midwives do, and what the experiences may be. What makes this book accurate, is because their are enough stories and scenarios, to show readers everyone that every experience is different.

HW 39 - Insights from Book - Part 2

The Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent is an autobiography that illustrates the average midwifes experience. The book explains many birth scenarios the author witnessed as a midwife. The book does a good job explaining what each mother felt, said and how their experience went. In the second one hundred pages the book talks about the different birth experiences women have, and so far most of them have been positive. For example for some of the births Peggy Vincent talks about how some women have un-painful, births but rather pleasuring. Pleasuring, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, because the women felt a sense of relief and happiness to release a part of her and a part of something off to the world, so it didn’t affect them much physically. Vincent also talks about the joy she gets being a midwife, because she sees the mother’s true feelings. That sort of reminded me of Janet when she came to our class and spoke about her birthing experience and how after she delivered her baby she wasn’t automatically attached the first time she held her daughter. Which I than compared to many of the midwife births we’ve seen in the business of being born, the mother tends to seem very happy and content with their birth, and seem to be happy to see their baby for the first time, which to me seems like a connection. But I feel that mothers, who have babies in hospitals, seem to have an industrial nightmarish vibe when birthing children. And because hospitals make women work harder to give birth to the child the mother is more exhausted than a mother who has a child at a birthing center or at home, causing her to be less interested. Another key point which we learned about, was how births in the 70’s during the hippie movement, were trying to re bring midwifery, but during that same time hospitals technology improved, causing a boom in hospital birth, causing a less popular trend of midwife births.