To Devin,
Your project focused on the cutting of the umbilical cord, which includes, when to cut it (do doctors cut it too early).
The one aspect of this project that I truly valued was way you divided up the information at the beginning (anesthesia, convenience, and technology) although those were the shortest parts of your project I found them to be organized in a way where I enjoyed them the most.
The reason why this project matters to me is the fact that this could possibly affect my future decision when having a child. I am now definitely more likely to tell the doctor to wait a second before he cuts it. I will also be telling my friends (those who don't go to SOF) and family to check out this blog and to learn what i have.
The only suggestion I would make is to organize the second half a little better I felt it was a bit out of place although it was still a great project.
To Andy,
Your essay is a look into the cover-up that is in the movie The Business of Being Born. I found this essay to be very well written, this cover up is one I did not notice until you wrote about it. There is one specific line that I particularly found interesting which was where you analyze Muhlhahn’s interview, "Although Abby’s baby boy arrives safely, the physician says that Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) occurred. Do you want to talk about that? In the film it appears like the baby was starving, everybody missed it, and the doctor saved the day. But the situation was misconstrued because of a critical detail that was lost during the emergency transfer. The physician who received the transfer was under the impression that the baby was 40 weeks. Abby’s baby was actually born at 35 ½ weeks. A 3 lbs, 5 ounces baby at 40 weeks would have been much more serious than at 35 ½ weeks" I felt that here she began to make excuses almost as if deflecting the blame onto the viewer for not knowing this information. Doing research on my own I discovered the same thing as you. at 35.5 weeks a 3 Ib and 5 ounce baby is very small and way off the growth curve which makes me question some of the other information in the movie, not for any particular reason except for the fact Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
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at we were mislead here so there is a chance we were also mislead somewhere else.
Overall this paper was written very well. The only bit of constructive criticism is to start off the essay with a statistic rather than someone’s opinion because of the fact if someone not in our class who was reading this may be uninterested in Ina May’s opinion on the movie (since they don’t know who she is) however I think an interesting statistic on birth (specifically "Intra-Uterine Growth Restriction" (IUGR)) would be more compelling to a reader. Also the way you concluded the essay was especially good. The line “I also conclude that we must critically investigate the claims and evidence of ESPECIALLY the people we most agree with, in order to avoid entrapment in dishonest and/or oversimplified representations of our situation.” Is something I feel is important too; the best way to avoid a situation where someone else challenges you on your information is to challenge the information yourself.
To Abdul,
It seems that your project was a deeper look into the industrial nightmarish atrocities that surrounds pregnancy and birth.
One particular aspect I liked about your project was this look into both statistical information and historical information. This brings not only a general look onto the subject but also analyzes how we have evolved and how are opinions/practices have changed regarding the subject.
This project definitely matters to me, mainly because it has helped solidify the information I had learned in class. Knowing that a fellow classmate who has put hours of time into researching the subject discovered generally the same thing as the information we received in class allows me to be more confident in it.
The only suggestion I would make is to focus on a single aspect. It seemed that your project might have been a bit broad. Perhaps focusing on maybe cost, or historical information (although it seemed you mainly leaded towards cost) would have made this project a bit better. However this project was still well written and a joy to read. GREAT WORK!!
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From Andy:
Sharif,
Hilarious 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?
From Abdul:
For Sharif( Classmate):
Shairf 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.
From Ben:
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.
This 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!
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