Sex/uality Artifacts

Hi everyone! I’m Bethany Skees and I presented my artifact last Thursday. I showed a video that I related to the article, “The Pleasures of Childbirth.” The article is about how when we, in North America, think of childbirth, we associate it with pain and trouble and stress. It does not even take us a second to think before we answer “YES” to the question if childbirth is painful. In the article, author Ina May Gaskin talks about how she worked as a midwife for many years and found that childbirth can actually be a pleasurable experience for some women. One of the main points I took from the article was that the way we prepare our bodies for childbirth makes a really huge difference in our experiences with it. Women in other countries live very active lifestyles right up until they deliver, while in the United States, we are put on bed rest two weeks to two months before we deliver, depending on the circumstance. When women stay active up until their delivery, they are preparing their bodies for the birth of their child. Childbirth is such a natural thing for a woman’s body, and there is not much of it that you can control – the baby is coming out one way or another. However, if you are just laying around and not staying active toward the end of your pregnancy, your body may atrophy – or lose muscle mass – and these muscles are a very important factor for a less painful delivery. The video that I showed in class was titled “Is It Safe to Work Out Up to Delivery? | Pregnancy Workout” and talks about how not only is it okay to workout up until you deliver, but it’s actually beneficial. The video is very clear is saying however, that you should not strain yourself. There is no need to run a marathon, but keeping your body flexible and strong is extremely important during pregnancy.