Tag: Birth
-
Infertility in Nigeria and the race for parenthood
Princewill UdomPort Harcourt, Nigeria Infertility is a growing problem in Nigeria. In one study, researchers found that female gender-related causes accounted for 42.9% of infertility, in contrast to male causes, which were about half that number.1 Common causes are broadly categorized into genetic, physiological, endocrine, and lifestyle factors. One consequence of this problem is a…
-
Labor of love
Mary OakSeattle, Washington, USA Each week my elderly father and I watch babies being born. In the silver-shadowed flickers of a television, we sit as we often did in my childhood. Now in the spectral shade of his decelerated years, I care for him. He spends a lot of time watching TV. I join him…
-
Enough
Laura LoertscherPortland, Oregon, United States The last food you ever ate was a cup of orange sherbet from the nurses’ station. I saw no reason to make you NPO. After all, you were eating for two. Did you know this would be your last meal? You came to the hospital on a late Friday afternoon,…
-
Bob Edwards and the perils of publicity
James Owen DrifeLeeds, United Kingdom The physiologist Robert Edwards began thinking about human in-vitro fertilization (IVF) in the 1950s and first suggested it in print in 1965. Thirteen years later Louise Brown, the world’s first IVF baby, was born in Oldham, United Kingdom. Today that sequence of events seems logical, even inevitable, but it very…
-
Welcome another Earth-dweller
Ndembou C. Jean-LouisBafut, Cameroon “Doctor, we have a thirty-eight-year-old lady, recently injured, having difficulties bearing down. And her baby’s heart rate is not the best,” a harried sounding nurse gushed over the phone. I groaned inwardly and reassured her I would arrive at the maternity ward in about ten minutes. I instructed her to continue…
-
A mother’s voice
Kelsey HartDenver, Colorado, United States I sit in the blue plastic recliner, coping with the familiar feeling of boredom and anxiety by flicking through a game on my phone. My daughter dozes in the climate-controlled isolette in front of me. I glance up at the white board hanging on the wall. My daughter lost 20…
-
A history of breastfeeding and wet nurses
Nursan CinarSumeyra TopalSinem Yalnizoglu CakaSakarya, Turkey Breastfeeding has been vital to life since the beginning of humanity. For infants who are unable to get this unique nutrition from their own mothers, wet nursing practices have been accepted since ancient times. The concept of wet nursing was evident in the clay tablets of the Hammurabi Laws.…
-
“Sara, Bill, Kristine, … you’re pregnant!” Gestational surrogacy, biomedicalized bodies and reconceptualizations of motherhood
Eva-Sabine ZeheleinFrankfurt, Germany The day we left the hospital, a therapist from the perinatal loss department presented us with two death certificates and asked us if we wanted the bodies for a burial. . . . We were being taken out the back like the trash, sparing those families who came to the hospital and…
-
When angels sing
Mary SommersChicago, Illinois, United States All living things have a natural urge to sing. Humans and other mammals, birds, insects, and even the great, extinct woolly mammoth sing special songs to call their children home. Though singing is universal, many people feel uncomfortable singing, as if we’ll be judged the moment we expose our voices.…