Video Link Here -------> http://vimeo.com/22095843
When brainstorming ideas for this project I initially wanted to do a film on the way hospitals handle their pregnant patients from c-section rates to how and when they use epidurals. However we decided that the topic was to broad and was honestly something you could look up online. I wanted this project to connect with the people watching it and mean something so I decided that the topic/main idea of the film would be what are perspectives of the common people and how is pregnancy and birth represented in hospitals. Lucas and I decided to visit Beth Israel hospital first the past Sunday, when we got there we noticed that at first they were friendly, the security guard obviously told us we couldn't go up but was gave us the number for the labor and delivery floor. We called up and were invited to talk with members of the staff. However when we got upstairs we began to start filming and were almost immediately avoided, the same people we were invited to talk to were told by a superior to completely avoid us stating that they were busy and had no time (when they clearly were not).
We decided that the next best move would be for us to go to Roosevelt hospital and see how they would react to us attempting to interview them. When we got there we were not allowed to film but they gave us a phone number that we could call to speak to the head nurse. We called multiple times but unfortunately we were never contacted back even after leaving several messages. When there we noticed that there were many similarities between Beth Israel and Roosevelt, for example they had the exact same logo (except for the name) we discovered this was because they were both owned by an umbrella corporation called Continuum Health Partners. We made the assumption that because they are both owned by this corporation that the procedures that they have when processing these pregnant women (funny how I said processing as if they were pieces of meat). However there were many differences, for example Roosevelt hospital seemed directed towards the wealthy with their private rooms and gourmet chefs (that's if you had the money) while Beth Israel seemed directed more at the common people because of the fact that it didn’t have that many luxuries.
Wednesday we went to Hunter College and decided to interview college students. We did this because college students are supposed to be the part of society that is constantly craving knowledge and to be the ones who already have an impressive amount of knowledge. We located a group of students first and found out that a majority of them were born c-section; we continued the interview only to find that their knowledge on the subject was similar to ours at the beginning of the unit. What is even more surprising is that 3 of them were pre-nursing students and were interested in going into the field of obstetrics and gynecology yet didn't know that much about it.
I felt that this project was very important to grasp a deeper understanding of the general’s public thoughts and knowledge of the subject. Although some knew more than others on the subject in general the knowledge on the subject was not so vast, which raises the question are we coming into this experience without the proper amount of knowledge making us unprepared for it? and Do we need to know about birth before going through the process? I think that we do go through this process unprepared and without the right amount of knowledge however I personally think we only need a little bit of knowledge on the subject because without a bit of knowledge we essentially allow the midwife or ob/gyn to make those decisions for us making them in charge of your process.
Sharif,
ReplyDeleteHilarious that you went to a college and interviewed those people and asked them those questions. Your interpersonal skills seem to have been working well, since you got them to talk at length on camera. Its easier when its two people, so they don't think you're a lone crazy.
You can hear for yourself here that the main problem with amateur film is the audio.
Why the baby picture at the end?
For Sharif( Classmate):
ReplyDeleteShairf it seems as though your post was about gathering information about people's understanding of birth. You really seemed passionate about this topic since you took the time out to venture out into the city and figure out what the common people knew regarding the topic. Since the common people are the majority of people in the city it's important that they understand birth and be knowledgeable about it.
One aspect of your post that I particularly valued was the fact that you used your connections(college now class id card) to get into Hunter College to find out what people who are seeking more knowledge, and are supposedly more educated than the average citizen know about birth. It's a very creative idea I don't think many more people thought of going to a decent college in the city and interviewing regular students, as well as pre-nursing students. Your elevator speech in class really made me want to go to your blog and watch these interviews.
A reason why I think your project matters is because the common people are the majority of people that are affected by birth. It's most important for them to be educated and knowledgeable about such an important aspect of life that many people involve themselves in. These people need to be prepared for for brith and I really think by you going to Hunter College and investigating people's opinions, you tried to really see what's in people's minds. Since were both enrolled in a Psychology class in Hunter, I think that helped with your drive to uncover what was in the Hunter student's heads.
I would have appreciated more from you on this topic.Although your blog was solid and much better than mines, I think if you would have maybe tried to educate people at Hunter more after you found out how little they knew. Perhaps posting fliers with some knowledge we learned from the unit on the bulletin boards on some of the floors, or just handing them out to students would have helped. If that wasn't possible you could have had sheets that told the Hunter students how to educated themselves better by having the names of the books we read this unit, or even the name of the movie we all watched. Clearly you didn't need to do any of this since your blog and elevator speech were solid, but there just suggestions. Nicely done Sharif I'm very proud of your work here.
For your project, I believe that you intended to explore how much knowledge people had on the topic of hospital births and what their impressions were. You explored to different hospitals to see how they handled birth, as well as interviewing multiple students at Hunter College.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is extremely important to me, and it should be to everyone else as well. Understanding the procedures of hospitals is essential in the woman's decision to either have a hospital birth or go with a midwife instead. It is also important to be aware of the general public's understanding of a topic like this, so one can observe what knowledge people still need to acquire in order to take an educated stance on the matter.
I think you guys did an amazing job making that video! The fact that you were able to get all those students to talk to you for such a long time is impressive in itself, but your choice of questions in the interview provided very informative answers. The effort you put into this project was clear, and it showed through the observations you made in the hospitals.
It would have been nice if you had been able to get the necessary information out of the hospital staff, but nevertheless, great job!
Sharif,
ReplyDeleteI thought the way you compared the two different hospitals and interviewed college students was really interesting. It seemed to me that only one of the students knew what she was talking about but the rest were pretty uneducated. I really liked the part where the one kid said "what's a cesarean?" because it showed just how much some people know about the topic.
I wanted to read your blog after your elevator speech because it seemed to me that I had a connection to it. College students are not very far in age from us so it was intersting to see that we knew more than they did about birth in general.
I liked your video, but the audio could have been better. (and the baby was really cute).
To me, it seems like you compared peoples different perspectives on birth, and how it should happen. You brought up a few key concepts that are essential for understanding the multiple concepts of different births including C-Section and Vaginal.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed to me that the people you interviewed were interested and engaged in the topic. Even the ones that didn't know as much about birth seemed interested in learning. It is very unfortunate that the hospitals did not contact you back because i think it would have been great to see that perspective (One that knows more about the topic).
This project matters to me because it is something that most parents have to deal with, and if planned on being a parent, it is something that is valuable to learn about.