Traditionally.
childbearing has emphasized the joy of conveying a new life into the universe. However. with the McDonaldization of health care. childbearing seems to be more about standardisation over nature.
Hospitals have begun to copy procedural thoughts of major corporations and childbearing has begun to be centred on efficiency. predictability and control. To bring forth more money. infirmaries have placed focal point on efficiency.
taking a adult female through childbearing every bit rapidly as possible. As a consequence. criterion. predictable processs are necessary. Technology is being used at an increasing rate.
moving as a control over the natural procedure of childbearing. Overall. it seems that selling the thought of attention is more of import than the attention itself. Throughout efficiency. predictability and control. there is the thought of? unreason of reason.
? Harmonizing to Ritzer. ? many of these unreasons involve the antonym of the basic rules of McDonaldization. ? ( 269 ) with the basic rules being efficiency. predictability and control. This facet of the McDonaldization thesis will be discussed in concurrence with the basic rules. Efficiency Efficiency is the attempt to detect the best possible agencies to whatever terminal is desired.
( Ritzer: 268 ) In other words. efficiency is the quickest path from point A to point B. For childbearing. it is the quickest bringing with the least sum of hurting.
Hospitals have increased their efficiency by shortening corsets after bringing. every bit good as by increasing their use of medical intercessions. Medical intercessions include induced labors. epidurals. and cesarean subdivisions. This move to efficiency has created a new societal phenomenon that has been dubbed? too-posh-to-push.
? ? Too-posh-to-push? has resulted because more and more adult females are inquiring for the usage of medical intercession. They want to hold a babe. but they don? T privation to travel through the natural bringing nor do they desire to remain in the infirmary to retrieve. Medical intercessions are on a rise. but in-hospital recovery is in a serious diminution. More adult females are choosing for bring oning labor and utilizing epidurals.
which put both female parent and kid at a higher hazard. but infirmary are directing them place earlier than they would hold been even a decennary ago. Before adult females used to remain. on norm. 4 yearss after bringing. now they stay 1 or 2 yearss at most.
With female parent and kid now holding to confront post-partum complications at place. exigency suites have to pick up the slack of the pregnancy wards. Medical intercessions are besides taking to increasing the hazards for the babe. More babes are being admitted to the neonatal intensive attention unit ( NICU ) to be placed in an brooder.
Medical intercessions increase the hazard of babes being scraggy. premature. and holding birth defects. although it must be noted that medical intercessions are non the sole cause. Babies tend to stay in NICU for an mean stay of 2 yearss.
which could hold been prevented if medical intercessions were non used. That is non to state there are no instances that intercession is non need. but these do non do up the bulk. The unreason of reason. or in this instance the inefficiency of efficiency is that adult females are traveling through the bringing procedure faster. but at a higher hazard of complications to both female parent and kid.
Predictability Predictability is moving in a manner that is insistent and standard. With respects to McDonalds. ? employees are expected to execute their work in a predictable mode. and clients are expected to react with likewise predictable behavior. ? ( Ritzer: 268-269 ) Childbirth conforms to this thought of predictability by holding standardized processs for managing the bringing of babes. even in low-risk instances.
Regardless of age and ethnicity adult females go through criterion processs in childbearing. This non merely do childbearing predictable amongst adult females in one infirmary. it makes it predictable over a state or district. and over the full state. However. there are difference amongst the single states and districts.
Increasing predictability for anticipant female parents. it cesarean subdivisions. More and more frequently adult females are choosing to present by cesarean subdivisions even when there is no hazard that would hold one necessary. Cesarean subdivisions have enabled adult females to take when their babe will be born.
doing bringing even more predictable. It increases the predictability of processs and it takes the guessing out of inquiring when the babe is traveling to? come. ? The capriciousness of predictability with respects to the processs is that there are a assortment of state of affairss that could originate that it is impossible to hold processs in topographic point to manage them. Every adult female labours and delivers otherwise with each birth she goes through.
No two parturition experiences are of all time the same ; it? s nature? s manner of guaranting each babe a alone entryway to life. Depending on age and ethnicity. hazard factors for complications differ. which these criterion processs do non take into history. No affair how predictable infirmaries make childbearing processs.
childbearing itself will ever be unpredictable. With respects to taking a cesarean subdivision day of the month doing childbirth predictable. the capriciousness of it is that fortunes arise that can alter the day of the month. Furthermore.
state of affairss can originate that cause the adult female to alter her head to non desiring a cesarean subdivision birth. Although choosing for cesarean subdivisions can do the bringing day of the month predictable. there are still variables that could alter. and as a consequence cause a alteration in the predictable day of the month.
Control? There is a great trade of control in a McDonaldizing society. and a good trade of that control comes from engineerings. While these engineerings presently dominate employees. progressively they will be replacing worlds.
? ( Ritzer: 269 ) At an increasing rate accoucheurs are utilizing non-human engineerings during the childbearing procedure. The major engineering used is the scalpel. Although basic and non precisely what a individual would believe of as being engineering. it the most widely used engineering in childbearing. Even 10 or 20 old ages ago it was being used widely during childbearing.
The scalpel is used to execute episiotomies. which is a surgical cut to forestall vaginal lacrimation and other post-natal complications. ? ( Ubelacker. 2004 ) Episiotomies have been used for old ages ; nevertheless they are on a diminution. as cesarean subdivisions addition in use.
The scalpel is besides the cardinal tool used in cesarean subdivisions. The scalpel has remained one of the most widely used non-human engineerings in childbearing. Forcepss are besides a non-human engineering used in childbearing. They are used to? help? the babe out of the womb. Although the usage of forceps is worsening.
there is a new engineering replacing it. vacuum extraction. Vacuum extraction involves puting a suction cup on the babe? s caput to assist ease the babe into the universe. This new engineering is being used at an increasing rate. The non-control of control is that there? s ever a opportunity of engineering neglecting.
interrupting down. or being used falsely. The chief concern should lie with vacuum extraction. Any little alteration in any one variable with vacuum extraction can do serious harm.
Using it falsely poses a really high hazard of harm. The same goes with the scalpel. it is a knife. and with one incorrect move irreversible harm can be caused. If the individual utilizing the scalpel does non cognize how to utilize it right.
there is a high potency of serious hazard. harm. hurt. and decease.
The non-control is that engineering in childbearing can neglect or breakdown or be used falsely. and the possible consequences can be serious. Drumhead Childbirth one time emphasized the joy of new life being brought into the universe. nevertheless. with the McDonaldization of society.
health care in peculiar. it seems to concentrate more on efficiency. predictability. and control. Through medical intercessions and shorter infirmary corsets childbearing is supposed to be more efficient.
but it becomes inefficient due to the higher hazards involved. Doctors. to increase the predictability of labor and bringing. invented standard processs for childbearing.
Childbirth due to nature is unpredictable. because labor and bringing is different for every adult female and every babe. Non-human engineerings are supposed to take to a greater sum of control within childbearing. nevertheless.
with the engineerings being unpredictable themselves. they make childbirth unmanageable. Overall. selling the thought of attention seems more of import that the attention itself.
Decision In the McDonaldization theory there is one other construct. calculability. Calculability places an accent on measure over quality. ( Ritzer: 268 ) Although the quality of attention received during childbearing is questionable.
the accent is non on how many babes are born. However. Ritzer does indicate out there is a hiting system once the kid is born. Once the babe comes into the universe.
there is a calculable marking system. Apgar. used on neonates. The babes are given tonss of 1 to 2 on five factors ( for illustration. bosom rate.
coloring material ) . with 10 being the top ( healthiest ) entire mark. Most babes have tonss between 7 and 9 a minute after birth. and 8 to 10 after five proceedingss. Babies with tonss of 0 to 3 are in hurt.
( Ritzer: 274-275 ) Overall. the health care system has allowed itself to be McDonaldized and mothers-to-be have helped to maintain McDonaldization with childbearing. By following procedural thoughts from corporations. health care has become efficient. predictable.
and governable. but at a cost of increased hazards. which have lead to inefficiencies. capriciousness. and uncontrollability within medical specialty.
Mothers-to-be have helped to maintain it by voluntarily choosing for medical intercessions. chiefly cesarean subdivisions. during childbearing. which has created a societal phenomenon called too-posh-to-push.
If every adult female would choose to labor and bringing their kid without medical intercessions. the hazards of complications would diminish dramatically and babes would be born healthier. BibliographyMunro. Margaret. ? Birth Interventions On Rise As? Too-Posh-To-Push? Phenomenon Grows. ? CanWest News.
Don Mills. Ontario. September 10. 2004. Ritzer. George.
? The McDonaldization Thesis: Is Expansion Inevitable. ? Society In Question. Toronto. Ontario.
2004. Pages 267-279. Basics. Sarah. ? Rate of Canadian Cesarean deliveries at a Record High but New Moms? Hospital Stays Getting Shorter.
? CanWest News. Don Mills. Ontario. April 21.
2004. Ubelacker. Sheryl. ? Health Information Report Shows Changing Picture of Childbirth in Canada. ? Canadian Press NewsWire.
Toronto. Ontario. September 9. 2004 Essay submitted by Candice Bailey
