Ayeshah Ahmad

ABSTRACT: The paper draws a comparison between the childbirth practices employed in the old days and the ones in use today. The use of instruments, fetal monitoring methods, birthing methods, and medications are compared. The use of alternative medicines and their success and the reaction of the general public on the Complimentary or Alternative Methods (CAM) are analyzed. INTRODUCTION: Childbirth has always been a debate for years. Medical procedures are quite technical and need to be handled with care. When it comes all the way to bring a life into this world, it becomes even more crucial. Pregnancy brings joy as well as numerous complications with it. To counter this, the whole thirty-six weeks are to be continuously monitored by a licensed healthcare professional. The parents choose the best obstetricians and make sure to go to the hospital where they are dealt with care and responsibility. With increased awareness, the parents choose a hospital where they can give birth using their own desirable childbirth technique. The healthcare system has been evolving greatly over the past many years. The latest medications and technology has brought a revolution in the field of obstetrics as well. From conventional methods, people have shifted dramatically to modern methods. Hospitals have become more advanced in childbirth techniques. Unlike the old times, the modern techniques are less invasive, have speedy healing for mothers, and the neonates are least harmed during the procedure. By comparing the pain management and childbirth techniques used a century ago and the ones in use today, we can easily observe how the whole procedure has evolved. METHOD OF CARE DURING PEGNENCY PERIOD Role of X-rays: The ability to examine the human body without surgery was revolutionizing and had a significant impact on every community. The x-ray machine suddenly became the most advanced scientific approach to modern medicine. They were used to check kidney stones and limb fractures. They also made diagnoses of tuberculosis, kidney stones, and fractures. The patients who were to be examined via X-rays were not admitted to the hospital for this purpose. You'll probably never need an abdominal x-ray during pregnancy. But sometimes, because of a particular medical condition, your physician may feel that a diagnostic x-ray of your abdomen or lower torso is needed.During most x-ray examinations - like those of the arms, legs, head, teeth, or chest - your reproductive organs are not exposed to the direct x-ray beam. So these kinds of procedures, when properly done, do not involve any risk to the unborn child. However, x-rays of the mother's lower torso - abdomen, stomach, pelvis, lower back, or kidneys - may expose the unborn child to the direct x-ray beam. They are of more concern. Fetal monitoring: Fetal monitoring is the process of watching the baby’s heart rate. This can be external or internal. In external fetal monitoring, an ultrasound device is placed on your abdomen to record information about your baby’s heart rate, and the frequency and duration of your contractions. This can be used either continuously or intermittently. Internal monitoring involves the use of a small electrode to record the baby’s heart rate. While the membranes must be ruptured before the electrodes can be attached to the baby’s scalp, this is the most accurate way of obtaining this information. A pressure sensor can also be placed near the baby to measure the strength of contractions. Role of Narcotics in Medical Treatment of Childbirth: Narcotics are the class of drugs that suppress CNS activities and numb the mind. In the past, childbirth was a very painful and difficult process for women with a lot of blood loss. Today, various methods have been discovered to go through childbirth painlessly and easily with the help of narcotics, surgeries, and medical instruments. In the early 20th century, the drugs, instruments, and physicians used in American women's experience to give birth varied greatly. The poor and immigrant society of America gave birth to their babies in the old fashioned way. They gave birth in their beds with the help of some midwife who'd sometimes administer drugs and call a physician when the case of birth was complicated. Just few poor women conceived an offspring in emergency clinics under the supervision of a certified physician via charity or public hospitals. However, the middle-class or upper-class women preferred to give birth under the supervision of a physician instead of a midwife. The physician was required to be a general practitioner and a specially trained obstetrician. These births took place in homes, too, rather than hospitals. However, in the second decade of the 20th century, physicians used the twilight sleep practice, which moved the place of birth from homes to hospitals. In the early part of the 20th century, physicians relied on forceps and drugs like opium, chloroform, chloral, cocaine, and nitrous oxide to relieve pain and act as analgesics. In a case study, it was discovered that instruments might have made the delivery process shorter, but they also made it less enjoyable too. This was because most drugs couldn't be used in labor either because they were dangerous for the baby, or they caused inhibition in muscle contraction and relaxation. This inhibition led to increased labor pain. The use of forceps didn't result comfortable either as it caused perineal tears, and complicated post-delivery recovery. These methods raised the fear of childbirth, and women chose to have fewer children instead, so they don't have to go through this painful procedure. The childbirth process, which was aided by Scopolamine was a great success. In this process, the women were given Scopolamine and went unconscious, delivered her baby, and woke up. The drug altered their consciousness but didn't affect their muscle activity; hence when they woke up, they did not remember labor pain and cramps. This was named as "The Twilight Sleep Delivery." However, this technique was only available in Germany at that time, and this led to a lot of pressure exertion on the medical professionals by the feminist community at that time. The feminists protested that this method is introduced and replace the forceps and old fashioned American method. These rallies led to another question about whether the women or attendants decide the process and way of birthing. The women urged that they should choose the process of birth, and the twilight sleep process should only be utilized under their discretion. After the pressure by feminist to introduce the twilight sleep method in America, untrained doctors performed deliveries with Scopolamine. Due to their lack of training, they couldn't monitor the scopolamine dosage insertion. This led to the adverse effects of the drug on the mother, and the repute of the drug went bad. Another inhibitory factor emerged in August 1915, when Mrs. Cambody passed on during labor at Long Island Medical College in New-York. The husband and the doctors did insist that the death of Mrs. Cambody wasn't caused by Scopolamine, but it still had an effect on the movement. The twilight sleep process made a natural experience of childbirth look like an illness that required hospitalization and supervision of physicians(Warner & Tighe, 2001, pg 357-360). METHOD OF CHILD BIRTH In past, the onlyway of delivering baby is vaginal delievery. But in modern times, there are many types of child, but also most common is vaginal delievery. If any thing happen seriously with mother or child then did not take risk of baby and mother and directly go the operation and save lives. Vaginal delivery: Vaginal delivery is the most common type of birth.. This assistance can vary from use of medicines to emergency delivery procedures. Induced labor: Induction of labor usually means that labor needs to be started for a number of reasons. It is most often used for pregnancies with medical problems or other complications. Labor is usually induced with Pitocin, a synthetic form of the drug oxytocin given intravenously. Medical reasons for inducing labor might include: Diabetes High blood pressure Ruptured membranes Small baby Past-due pregnancy Forceps delivery: Forceps look like two large spoons that the doctor inserts into the vagina and around the baby’s head during a forceps delivery. The forceps are put into place and, the doctor uses them to gently deliver the baby’s head through the vagina. The rest of the baby is delivered normally. Vacuum extraction: A vacuum extractor looks like a small suction cup that is placed on the baby’s head to help deliver the baby. A vacuum is created using a pump, and the baby is pulled down the birth canal with the instrument and with the help of the mother’s contractions. Cesarean section: A cesarean section, also called a c-section, is a surgical procedure performed if a vaginal delivery is not possible. During this procedure, the baby is delivered through surgical incisions made in the abdomen and the uterus. Labor/ pain management: In the 1800s, there were little to no pain management techniques available. To make the mother feel better during the whole procedure, they would tie a towel to the bed, which she could pull throughout her labor to relieve pain. The other available option was the use of opium. Opium was sold as dissolved in alcohol known as laudanum. The pain management was not something of considerable importance back then as the people believed that it was obligatory on women to experience this pain as it was decreed on them by God. the cure and treatment of disease were very time-consuming and challenging. mother giving birth to a child had to go through a lot of pain and blood loss. In that period, there is high death rate of child and mother during delivery.As time passed, in every field of life technology is advanced, especially in the field of medicine and the healthcare. Every person have the acces and have convinent to take medicines and surgical techniques, X-rays and Electrocardiographs.Technological advancements and new medical discoveries have revolutionized the method of childbirth. Today, the mother does not have to go through the trauma and pain of birth as they are introduced to narcotics like Scopolamine that eases their pain and sends them into a "Twilight Sleep." Post partum care: Before maternity hospitals, postpartum women and infants were cared for in their homes by other women in their social sphere or by hired caregivers. The establishment of hospital-based maternity care roughly paralleled urban development, when families often were separated from their traditional supports.After childbirth, women are particularly fragile in mind and body, and physicians where terrified important things would fall out of a lady if she jostled around too much. In his book The Home Book of Health and Medicine, William Edmonds Horner lays it out: Rest and quiet should be strictly enforced; no visitors should be admitted for a fortnight or three weeks, both to secure the mother from fatiguing herself by talking, and from hearing anything that might agitate or distress her mindi. During this period, more fortunate women preferred to give birth at home. In early 90’s, socially prominent, influential women put pressure on the medical establishment to use the German practice of twilight sleep. These women wanted such medication because it abolished memory of pain during labor and birth. American physicians’ acceptance of twilight sleep, a combination of scopolamine and sedatives or analgesics for pain management. Laboring women under the influence of twilight sleep needed expert nursing care that hospitals could provide. Twilight sleep became the norm for pain relief for most hospital births by the late 1930s. With its long-lasting sedative effects, twilight sleep undoubtedly slowed women’s recovery from delivery and increased the need for others to care for their newborns. During the 1940s, the percentage of births in hospitals grew dramatically because of the perceived health benefits of hospital care and the dangers of home birth. In 1935, 37% of births were in hospitals; by 1949, the hospital rate was 87%ii.During this time, the infant mortality rates declined to less than 10 per 10,000. The ability to control hemorrhage with blood transfusions and oxytocic medications as well as the World War II development of antibiotics contributed to reduced maternal mortality and morbidity. Present-day hospital postpartum care has challengesdue to duration of stay. periods of postpartum care, childbearing women now have different needs that have to be considered when developing nursing care. For example, do women who have epidural analgesia for labor pain management have different or similar care needs than did their predecessors with natural childbirth? New mothers at the beginning of the new century expect to return to fulltime employment more often than did new mothers during most of the 20th century. Is postpartum care helping new mothers return to employment in good health?. Conclusion: Technology has played a major role in every aspect of life. It has greatly affected the medical profession, as well. The technological advancements have revolutionized the field of medicine and health care. Discovery of machines like X-ray, ECG, MRI have helped the physician to easily diagnose any kind of disease and check the health status of their patients. These advancements have enhanced the in-depth anatomical study of Human beings. Advancement in modern medicine has also played a vital role in many medical processes. It has turned the not-bearable and painful experience of childbirth into painless and bearable. In short, technology has totally revolutionized the field of medicine.