at least, that's what we say we are doing.
the night before last i dreamt that i was a superhero with a pretty cool power that involved the command of lightning (and a high school and a gazebo, but we won't go into that). and last night i could fly and had to save perry from some angry deer. it's always fun when you can remember dreams.
today's lecture in aktuell sociologisk forskning was really interesting--it was given by a woman who's writing her doctoral thesis on birthing fear, which is an actual medical diagnosis in finland. finland is the only country in the world with a specific diagnosis for it; it's classified as a gynecological ailment rather than treated as psychological (as is normal in, say, sweden). and it's considered a problem with the pregnant woman--the medical discourse on the subject is all "irrational fears" and "fear without cause" without the least bit of awareness of irony, according to the lecturer: stuff like "unfortunately, many women who have had birth complications in the past become unreasonably nervous in subsequent pregnancies" with no acknowledgement that they might have a good reason for that or that there might be some cause in the system for this fear. according to her, in america (and britain, to an increasing extent) women can opt to have c-sections pretty freely, without having to show a medical necessity. in contrast, the finnish government pays for the birth regardless and c-section is more expensive, so the medical establishment has a vested interest in minimising the numbers of them, and their policy is to push for a regular birth as much as possible. one of the quotes we saw said something about how it's harder to justify a c-section (which is called, in swedish, an "emperor incision") on a "psychological" basis.
today's lecture in aktuell sociologisk forskning was really interesting--it was given by a woman who's writing her doctoral thesis on birthing fear, which is an actual medical diagnosis in finland. finland is the only country in the world with a specific diagnosis for it; it's classified as a gynecological ailment rather than treated as psychological (as is normal in, say, sweden). and it's considered a problem with the pregnant woman--the medical discourse on the subject is all "irrational fears" and "fear without cause" without the least bit of awareness of irony, according to the lecturer: stuff like "unfortunately, many women who have had birth complications in the past become unreasonably nervous in subsequent pregnancies" with no acknowledgement that they might have a good reason for that or that there might be some cause in the system for this fear. according to her, in america (and britain, to an increasing extent) women can opt to have c-sections pretty freely, without having to show a medical necessity. in contrast, the finnish government pays for the birth regardless and c-section is more expensive, so the medical establishment has a vested interest in minimising the numbers of them, and their policy is to push for a regular birth as much as possible. one of the quotes we saw said something about how it's harder to justify a c-section (which is called, in swedish, an "emperor incision") on a "psychological" basis.
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