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- All Subjects: Women's Health
- Creators: Abboud, Carolina
Description
Prior to the legalization and regulation of abortion and contraception in the late twentieth century, women could not readily access safe birth control, abortion, and other reproductive health options at clinics and doctor's offices. Thus, women sought out alternative means to control their reproduction that were often illegal, unreliable, and unsafe, often because they were provided by untrained reproductive health care providers. The untrained providers who performed unregulated reproductive health services during the 1800s through the mid 1900s were often referred to as "female physicians," despite not having any formal medical background. Those providers filled a demand to serve women who were not able to tend to unwanted pregnancies and other reproductive issues on their own, but their role in the history of women's health has not been well understood. I have investigated the following questions: (1) How have women sought alternative non-medical approaches to managing reproduction, and (2) what historical patterns and situations can we see showing that non-medically trained people were active in the reproductive lives of women throughout the 19th and 20th centuries in the US? To study this, I have engaged in historical review methods to trace the evolution of reproductive health care providers and educators. Specifically, I have examined historically active people, organizations, and events that involved women seeking alternative care and how the state of women's health care effected women's medical outcome. Through my investigation, I found a large number and variety of non-medical providers and approaches to women's reproductive health solutions due to an unmet need for reproductive healthcare and restrictive laws. Women obtained concocted birth control pills, illegal abortions, home-brewed menopause relief treatments, and learned how to give self cervical examinations from non-medical providers. In response to the rigidity of the male dominated medical field, non-medical forces intervened and women's healthcare evolved beyond the traditional male physician's office into supportive healthcare groups like Planned Parenthood. My findings are relevant in the ongoing political debates surrounding issues like contraception and abortion access. By demonstrating the struggle for sound standard of care for non-medical reproductive health care providers during the nineteenth and early twentieth century, this project emphasizes what the standards of reproductive health care for abortion and contraception might be like if the organizations that made them so readily available, like Planned Parenthood, were defunded or criminalized in our modern setting.
ContributorsHorwitz, Rainey Frances (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Abboud, Alexis (Committee member) / Abboud, Carolina (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The United States is one of the countries with the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, with significantly higher rates than other developed countries. Maternal mortality is defined as the death of women who are pregnant or recently gave birth. Many studies suggest that those deaths are preventable and result from a lack of quality care and unnecessary medical interventions. It is notable that there are specific populations, which I describe as “vulnerable,” that are at increased risk of maternal mortality, including women of color, women in poverty, and women with low socioeconomic statuses. The United States also has lower rates of midwife-assisted births than other developed countries, which suggests that there is an association between adverse birth outcomes, such as maternal mortality, and midwifery care. In my thesis, I investigate that association and answer the question: Do midwives lower rates of adverse birth outcomes in vulnerable populations? I describe the history of midwifery in the United States and analyze the factors that lead to lower adverse birth outcomes in midwife-attended births. I then suggest methods for integrating midwives into the United States healthcare system, which I suggest will lower rates of maternal mortality.
ContributorsOreilly, Megan Ashley (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Abboud, Carolina (Committee member) / Ellsworth Bowers, Esther (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05