Advances for Birth Givers -Prisila S.

Childbirth is something amazing and natural, but it is also very painful. When women are giving birth, they are given epidurals and pain killers to help ease the pain of contractions and everything else going on in the body. It was not always this way, though. In the past, women were punished for even asking for painkillers during childbirth. “In 1591, Eufame Maclayne was burned at the stake for asking for pain relief during the birth of her twins” (30). All other surgeries and medical procedures were given painkillers, but for some reason, they were not necessary for one of the most painful things that women have to go through.

Although they were not given painkiller they were given antipsychotics because childbirth was not seen as something natural. “Women were getting antipsychotics and other medicines to knock them out…” (110). In order to make childbirth more natural, pregnant women were taught to breathe rhythmically to relax the body automatically.

 

As I was reading the book, it helped me realize how much we have progressed with technology. Now, there are so many things to help with childbirth. For example, as I mentioned earlier, women are giv
en epidurals while they are in labor. An epidural anesthesia is a painkiller option that stops the pain in a certain area of the body. It is given in the form of a shot and is put into the lower back of the woman giving birth.   

This change in technology has positively affected women. They are given more options how they get to have their babies. These advances not only help make the labor be easier, but it helps it be less painful. I believe that these advances have been great because women deserve to make these decisions for themselves on how they have their kids, it should not be decided for them.

As I was reading, I was thinking about how ridiculous it was that women didn’t have the rights they deserved when it came to giving birth. Not only did the advances in technology help the process of giving birth, but the advances in society helped because women were able to get more rights and were able to start deciding things for themselves and not have a man control every single detail of their life, whether it was their doctor, their father, or their husband.

Overall, Get Me Out has helped me learn about how different it was back then for women giving birth to how it is now. It makes me appreciate these advances in technology and in society because I know that it will make it easier for my generation and generations to come to give birth to their children.