Perceiving pregnancy in 'climate of fear'

For the 800,000 women in Philadelphia, 85 percent of whom will give birth in their lifetime, the choices are limited.

There are "only six places to give birth within in the city limits" remarked Ruth Wilf, a local childbirth activist and speaker at a lecture held last night at Civic House. During the event, Wilf and two other experts addressed reproductive health as part of an ongoing series of activities that tie in with National Public Health Week, which runs through April 12.

Wilf's presentation, entitled "A History of Birth," concerned the changing character of American childbirth practices over the last 60 years.

Wilf demonstrated Philadelphia's development as a center of change for maternity care by presenting an outdated instructional film produced by the American Medical Association. She then explained how the region encouraged the development of new practices in the 60's and 70's, largely through the efforts of the now-defunct Booth Maternity Center, which she helped found in 1971.

As a midwife, Wilf is a proponent of natural childbirth involving a family-oriented approach towards birth and postpartum care.

Wilf laments that many of the developments made in the 70's and 80's have been abandoned, in what she labeled as a "climate of fear."

Observing that health care has become "increasingly corporatized" since then, she said pregnancy is now perceived as an "illness."

Furthermore, she said she feels that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has "not been behaving responsibly" in response to a statement from the audience regarding the increasing number of Caesarian sections.

However, she remains optimistic about the future of the maternity care field, stating that "we're starting to get to the end of the bad pendulum swing."

Karen Pollack, a representative of the Maternal Care Coalition and Penn alumna, addressed another aspect of reproductive health: depression, and its potential impacts on mother and child.

She offered that while 20 percent of women may suffer from postpartum depression, the more severe form of the disorder - postpartum psychosis - is rare. The odds of psychosis occurring, she said, are one in 1000.

Katya Pigur, also from the Maternal Care Coalition, addressed the development of the brain and emotions in infants.

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