Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • Free Essays • My Term Papers • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Health & Beauty Womens health Womens health Once upon a time, the many cultures of this world were all part of the gynocratic age. Paternity had not yet been discovered, and it was thought ... that women bore fruit like trees—when they were ripe. Childbirth was mysterious. It was vital. And it was envied. Women were worshipped because of it, were considered superior because of it.... Men were on the periphery—an interchangeable body of workers for, and worshippers of, the female center, the principle of life. The discovery of paternity, of sexual cause and childbirth effect, was as cataclysmic for society as, say, the discovery of fire or the shattering of the atom. Gradually, the idea of male ownership of children took hold.... Gynocracy also suffered from the periodic invasions of nomadic tribes.... The conflict between the hunters and the growers was really the conflict between male-dominated and female-dominated cultures. ... women gradually lost their freedom, mystery, and superior position. For five thousand years or more, the gynocratic age had flowered in peace and productivity. Slowly, in varying stages and in different parts of the world, the social order was painfully reversed. Women became the underclass, marked by their visible differences. o matriarchal, matrilineal, partnerships o power to women: fertility emblems, "spinners of destiny, associated with justice, wisdom and intelligence, and the arts as well as reproduction" Lewis & Bernstein, 1996 · 3000 years ago - elimination of Minoan culture - society became patriarchal, patrilinear, warrior cultures · Later - less nomadic; acquired property, property rights & inheritance, women & children became property · Women were subjugated, relegated to reproductive roles · Women were removed from sources of governance & power · Female sacrifice became commonplace · New patriarchal religions founded - Judaism, Christianity, & Islam · Women cared and for and nurtured other women, especially in childbirth and child-rearing · Midwives recorded from the beginning of history · In ancient word, childbirth was regarded as a female "mystery" · Soranus of Ephesus (A.D. 98 -138) · Roman physician - focused on the pathology of the female anatomy · belief was that uterus was small animal that wandered throughout the woman's body & caused symptoms of hyteria · Hence, the word hystero - pertaining to the uterus · 1484- Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) by Heinrich Krämer & Kakob Sprenger o required reading for all Roman Catholic judges o only men were allowed to be doctors · 24,000 midwives executed as witches during the 15th through 18th centuies · Fear of accusations drove midwives underground · 1588 Peter Chamberlen invented forceps o charged enormous fees, payable in advance o blindfolded laboring woman, made noises (rattling chains, ringing bells) so waiting relatives could not hear · cranioclast used prior to forceps o Obstetrics in Medical School curriculum o Believed practice more scientific o Felt midwives were their competitors - were afraid midwives would try to treat illness; afraid to lose wealth patients · Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) o Puerperal fever was a contagion spread by doctors o Published "The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever" in New England Quarterly Journal of Medicine o Physicians outraged - "The very notion that doctors, prototypical gentlemen and scholars, could themselves be the cause" o Multiple experimental operations, without anesthesia, on 4 black female slaves o 1855 founded Women's Hospital in New York - experimented on destitute Irish immigrant women · 1840's European study: Compared midwife & physician services at Vienna Lying-In Hospital · Physicians & medical students had 4 times death rate as midwives · Physician exams limited to non-visual · Guidelines: permission from husband · 1848 - Boston Female Medical College opened o effort to educate women in the care of women · 1874 - forced to close by physician groups o punitive, paternalistic control over unwed mothers o newborn must be given up for adoption o admitted only as primip - labled "first time loser" o admission refused to multiparous unmarried woman & patients with venereal disease · Early 1900's introduction of chloroform - brought more birthing women to hospitals · Medical theory was that the ovaries and uterus were the controlling organs and center of all disease in a woman's body · Menstruation viewed as a chronic disease · 1921 Sheappard - Towner Maternity & Infant Protection Act o goal to improve maternity & newborn care o midwifery schools were established o AMA caused Congress - act expired 1929 · 1905 - President of the Oregon State Medical Society said, · "Educated women could not bear children with ease because study arrested the development of the pelvis, at the same time it increased the size of the child's brain, therefore it's head" · 1915 - present midwives continued to practice o Care is holistic, women focused health o Non-interventionist, supportive approach o 1925 founded Frontier Nursing Service o 1930 founded New York City's Maternity Center § Midwifery school asso. with Columbia U. § Early outcomes - 0.9 deaths/live births compared to 10.4/1000 o believed that "all births are inherently pathogenic and should be treated as such" § 2. Sedation from 1st stage of labor § 4. Always use forceps to effectuate delivery o Consumerism, advocacy for childbirth o Marjorie Karmel, Thank You, Dr. Lamaze, 1959 o Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1963 - demand for improved health care for all women; end to sexism o Reproductive Freedom - Birth control · Women greatest consumers of health care · Women spend 2/3 of health care dollars · Women make up to 90% all health care decisions for their families · Out of the 20 most frequently performed surgeries, 11 are performed exclusively on women, none are performed exclusively on men · Restricted access to prenatal care · 32.6% households headed by women live in poverty · Divorce - woman's standard of living decreases while man's increases · Women receive child custody in over 75% of cases · One half of all women receive child support payments · Women make 74 cents for every dollar earned by men · Women comprise 2/3 part-time workers · Some employers view women as unreliable if they miss work when their children become ill · Worldwide, women comprise majority of older population · Women spend larger portion of their older years in disabled state · More likely to be widowed, to live alone, to be disabled, and to be poor · Women of color highest poverty rates · Funding cuts affect those in poverty · 37 million Americans have no health insurance; 7-10 million have inadequate coverage · Women who do not receive prenatal care are three times more likely to have low-birth-weight babies o sexuality & personal responsibility o health care practices (breast exams, pap smears) o changes that accompany childbirth and aging · "Let the world alone awhile. We cannot bring about a moral revolution in a day or year. Now that I have two daughters, I feel fresh strength to work. It is not in vain that in myself I have experienced all the wearisome cares to which woman in her best estate is subject." Elizabeth Cady Stanton in a letter to Susan B. Anthony, June 10, 1856 · "Always be ready to take a chance: look what it did for Rocky." Forrest Gump, 1994 Bibliography: Word Count: 1458
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