Some questions about poverty

1 . How unequal is the "rich" versus "poor" ratio?

"The richest 1% of wealth holders had 125 times the wealth of the typical household in 1962; by 2004 they had 190 times as much or $14.8 million in wealth for the upper 1% compared to just $82,000 for the household in the middle fifth of wealth."

      - http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20060823/

2. What is the difference between "wealth" and "income"?

"Wealth is the stuff that people own. The main items are your home, other real estate, any small business you own, liquid assets like savings accounts, CDs and money market funds, bonds, other securities, stocks, and the cash surrender value of any life insurance you have."

"Wealth provides another dimension of well-being. Two people who have the same income may not be as well off if one person has more wealth. "

    - http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2003/03may/may03interviewswolff.html

3. How many children live below the poverty line?

"In 2006, the poverty rate for minors in the United States was the highest in the industrialized world, with 21.9% of all minors and 30% of African American minors living below the poverty threshold."

     - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States4. What well-fare programs are most used?

4. What percentage of people are to poor to afford food?

"Eighty-nine percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year 2002, meaning that they had access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members."

     - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

5. Is poverty in the U.S. decreasing or ind=creasing?

The increases in inequality are apparent when we consider the fact that the share of income going to the bottom 20% of the income distribution has fallen from 4% to 3.6% from 1967 to 2000 while the share of income going to the top 5% of the income distribution has increased from 17.5% to 21.9% over the same period."

     - http://mises.org/story/1229

Buissness of Being Born Reaction:

This documentary had very large impact on me. Before watching this film I had not only been ignorant to the pitfalls of medicalized birth, but i was actually an ADVOCATE for interventions. Previous to viewing, i believed that giving birth was a dangerous, painful, and almost insane process to put your body through, and while giving birth is a life-changing event, i had been taught to view it as something bad, something to be dreaded if and when the time came. Now I can see that what i had been taught before was mostly false and illogical accusations against mid-wives and home-births.
From the movie I learned that in the United States we have the second highest infant/mortality rates among modern countries. This, I also learned, is probably due to interventions, such as the use of a labor-inducing medication called Pitocin that is commonly over-used. This drug causes stronger, more frequent contractions, creating possible risk to the infant and more pain to the mother, usually causing the need for an epidural. Not only that, but records show that home-births are just as safe, if not safer than hospital births. With all this evidence to back up the points the movie makes, I no longer see any reason, unless absolutely unnecessary, to have uncomfortable, over-priced hospital births to line the pockets of evil HMOs.

Natural vs. Normal

For an AWOL birth to be considered "normal" it usually has to involve bright fluorescent lighting and men in white coats who don't know you and probably don't care that much about you. It also includes foreign, cold hospital instruments, heavy drugs and an uncomfortable setting. With visiting hours telling you when you can and can't see your loved ones, hospitals make the "norm" out to be something miserable. Laying in bed, barley conscious from being doped up, childbirth at a hospital is usually just a fuzzy, faint memory of discomfort and detachment from the baby.
With that as a standard American birth it's no wonder people who know about the benefits of a natural birth prefer it to the MO of a more typical hospital birth. Hearing all about natural childbirth on Friday made me see that they are a lot more comfortable and beneficial. Natural childbirth can be done at home, in a comfortable environment with people who are close to you and who you know you can trust. Without drugs to fog your memory, natural births leave the mother fully aware, making it a more personal and satisfying experience, even causing a closer connection to the baby.

Answers

1. What are the percentages of contraceptives used?
Sterility: 30%; No contraception: 22%; Pill: 17%; Condoms: 13%; Pregnant/Trying to get pregnant: 9%; Other contraception: 9%

2. How much does an abortion cost?
Anywhere from $200-$1,000, depending on procedure, age and clinic.

3. What percent of pregnancies end in abortion?
In 2002 it was estimated to be around 24%

4. What risks go with getting an abortion?
Heavy bleeding, infection, incomplete abortion, sepsis (total body infection), anesthetic complications (that could possibly lead to convulsions, heart attack, even death), damage to the cervix, uterine ling uterus or internal organs.

5. How much does an epidural cost?
Prices can range from $200-$1,500

6. What are the risks of an epidural?
Inadequate pain relief, rise in temperature, drop in blood pressure, postpartum back pain, spinal block, shivering, itching, retention of urine, feeling "detached" from the baby, catheter misplacement.

7. How high is the risk of death during birth to the mother?
In the U.S. women have about a 1-in-4,800 risk of dying in labor.

8. How many types of abortions are there?
There are 5 commonly used techniques for getting an abortion:
1. Manual vacuum aspiration
2. Suction curettage
3. Dilation and evacuation
4. Dilation and extraction
5. Miferpristone (abortion pill)

9. How many children are put up for adoption?
About 127,000 were adopted in the U.S. in 2000 and 2001. On September 30, 2003 there were 119,000 children waiting to be adopted.

10. Does giving birth become easier the more children you have?
This is more a matter of opinion, but many women have reported that second and third births become easier because the vagina has already been stretched.

Questions

1. What are the percentages of contraceptives used?
2. What percentage of pregnancy is caused by rape?
3. How much does an abortion cost?
4. What percent of pregnancies end in abortion?
5. What risks go with getting an abortion?
6. How much does an epidural cost?
7. What risk goes with using an epidural?
8. What is the most common complication during pregnancy?
9. How high is the risk of death during birth to the mother?
10. What is the risk of a condom not working?
11. Is a natural birth safer or riskier?
12. How many types of abortions are there?
13. How many children are put up for adoption?
14. Is there more risk if you give birth to more than one child at a time, say giving birth to twins?
15. Does giving birth become easier the more children you have?

Feelings Regarding Birth

I've heard the story of how i was born over and over again, whenever it seems my mom is feeling "sentimental" is when I usually get re-told about the entire 9 months leading up to my birth. Not only have i heard m own birth stories but I've heard (and was there to witness) the pregnancy process and birth of my sister. I have also heard birth stories from other women and mothers who are friends with my mom or heard birth stories of cousins from aunts and uncles. It seems "birth" stories are always told with the same joy that only love and nostalgia can bring.

To be totally honest though hearing all about giving birth freaks me out. I've been told that it's just a natural and beautiful thing, but I really think that the only people who say that are parents or at least people who want to be parents. I think they say this only to justify what they went through to get the baby, and make it seem as if it was worth the pain and risk. My true feelings on birth is that it seems like an incredibly arduous, long, somewhat gross and painful process that isn't worth the 18 years of burden that follow.

Birth Stories

Birth Story #1: At around 2 in the morning my mom is driven to Holy Cross Hospital to give birth. When they get there she has constant and strong contractions, so they begin moving her to the delivery ward. My mom starts to want an epidural for the pain, but on the heart monitor it reads that my heart started to beat "irregularly." This means it would be to risky to put an epidural in now, and that normal birth might not be the best choice of delivery. When on the monitor it reads my heart has slowed down to much, causing possible brain damage the doctor decides to perform an emergency C-section.

Birth Story #2: When my mom gave birth to my sister, fearing complications, my mom had a planned C-section before her due date so the baby would come out as safely and as soon as possible.

Birth Story #3: My mom's friend had close to a typical "normal" birth, except she too had complications with her baby. When Mary was at the hospital she had had an epidural and the birth went as smoothly as a birth can, but after the baby was born she began to get a lot of infections. One infection had gone to her breast and her breast milk so when the baby tried to drink, it also made the baby very sick. This caused them both to be in the hospital, sick, for quite awhile after the birth.

Birth Story #4: During her 3rd pregnancy she had a lot of complications. Along with a weak immune system leaving her constantly frail and sick, she also had kidney failure. It's not only the mom who had problems though, because at one point during pregnancy the baby had stopped growing. Constantly in and out of the hospital, it was feared the baby would have a lot of problems or be sick. When it finally did come time to deliver the child she went into labor for an extremely long time, lying in labor for more than a full day. Despite it's long duration the birth itself was a fairly "normal" procedure. After the baby was born though some fears had become reality. After being taken home the baby had become very sick with a lung infection. The baby, who at one point was barley able to breathe, was taken to the hospital and had to stay there for days under close watch until she became well enough to go home.