Giving birth to a child is the most important event in the life of every woman. That is why it is necessary to pay attention to every detail of this significant process, to take into account all the aspects of the procedure and hope for the better.
However, every pregnant woman wants to be sure that her labors will be successful and everything will be all right. It is that point on which American doctors accentuate in their speeches. There are few problems which can experience a pregnant woman when she is preparing for one of the most significant moments in her life.
Nevertheless, the real situations and facts support the idea that the health care system of the USA is not perfect, and there are many controversial questions which require their immediate solutions. This opinion can be considered as a decisive one for the analysis of Marsden Wagner’s Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First in which the author provides the detailed examination of the most typical and influential problems of the maternity and health care system in the USA.
In his book, Marsden Wagner focuses on such problematic questions as the state of the hospitals in the USA, the aspects of the American maternity care system, difficulties in providing the effective care for mothers and their babies.
The most controversial question is about the fact that the USA health care system provides the most expensive care services for pregnant women in the world, but the level of the quality of these services does not follow the principles of the highest standards which are stated in the programs about the health care system in the country. Moreover, the author pays attention to the issues of midwifery and the women’s safety in hospitals.
There can also be different visions of the question of the main goal of the book. Angelo P. Giardino accentuates that the author of the book “specifically states that the purpose of the book is to further an understanding of problems in the system with an eye toward ultimately moving beyond defining the issues and toward suggesting solutions” (Giardino 38).
Moreover, the most interesting detail of the work is the high level of the criticism expressed in the book. Thus, Marsden Wagner is strict about the role of physicians in the life of a pregnant woman. “Physicians, however, will find the book a difficult read because of the level of criticism lobbed at their profession” (Giardino 39).
One more important detail which also requires the further investigation is the point that Wagner uses the allusion to the physicians as “priests” of a cult of science runs counter to that view” (Giardino 39). Marsden Wagner openly and rather sarcastically discusses the problems of the health care system in the USA.
Nevertheless, why can this book be useful for pregnant women who face the problem of following the principles of the modern maturity care system in the USA? “Examining the structure of obstetrical care more thoroughly than most books about childbirth, it helps readers understand why present maternity care services are often unsatisfactory, why choices are limited, and why women’s basic human rights ignored or abused” (Pincus 185).
In his book, Marsden Wagner also concentrates on those risks which pregnant women can experience during their labors. He is extremely honest in his description of all the possible problems which they can face in the hospitals. The author also pays attention to the necessity of the conveniences for the further mothers and to the ways which women can use for creating the best conditions for the childbirth.
Moreover, Dr. Wagner accentuates the rights which women should know when they choose the best variant for their labors. Thus, “a pregnant woman who finds that her hospital is not willing to comply with her wishes for her labor and birth can also file a complaint with the chief compliance officer of the hospital” (Wagner 179).
He also focuses on the fact that pregnant women should not blindly follow the doctors’ instructions, and it is necessary for them to know as much information about labors as possible because there are many situations when women are treated wrongly due to the lack of the physicians’ competence.
For instance, Cytotec can be considered as a rather dangerous medicine with a lot of negative effects for the majority of women. The author focuses on the fact that “we have very little solid information on the use and outcomes of procedures and drugs, such as Cytotec for inducing labor, that have not been adequately tested for safety” (Wagner 184).
That is why it is useful for pregnant women to collect as much information about the aspects of labors as possible and have the strict opinion according to the medicines and the other ways of treatment which can be used for their case. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the level of health care services in hospitals can be considered as unsatisfied, the risks which women experience while giving birth to their children at home is much higher.
Thus, the book written by Dr. Wagner is helpful for women who are pregnant because it gives the truthful vision of the aspects which are connected with the health care system in the USA, and it provides definite useful solutions for the most controversial problems.
Works Cited
Giardino, Angelo P. “Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First”. Medscape General Medcine 9.1 (2007): 37-46. Print.
Pincus, Jane. “Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First”. Birth 34.2 (2007): 185-186. Print.
Wagner, Marsden. Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First. USA: University of California Press, 2007. Print.