Honors Contract Write Up

For my honors contract, I researched the customs and cultural variations about the

process of childbirth globally. I decided to do this project because it relates to what I would like

to pursue in my professional career. In addition, I wanted to know how certain countries differed

in the birthing process as opposed to the Western-style in the United States. In America,

typically a mother seeks hospice care, has access to medications for pain during birth, and is

guided by medical professionals. I studied developing countries that have differing views when it

comes to birth and researched different methods they used during the process.

Primarily, I studied how mothers endure the process of childbirth in Uganda. Some

traditional beliefs and values view childbirth as a way for the mother to prove her endurance. It is

known as Lutalo Lwabakyala, “The Woman’s Battle”. This means that women are expected to

endure pain through childbirth and conquer it in order to prove their strength. At home births are

far more common in this culture than in Western culture, about 43% of births occur at home.

While some women have delivered successfully at home, many women in Uganda face

numerous complications. A large issue is that women lack the resources and transportation to get

to a hospital, and this leads to many deaths due to childbirth. Also, since this company is a

developing, many of the facilities lack sufficient resources necessary for certain childbirth

complications.

Next, I investigated the birthing process in Sweden. I found that Sweden is one of the top

countries in the world to give birth due to the well-developed hospital facilities and the formal

process of guiding a mother. At the beginning of a pregnancy, a mother will seek a team of

medical professionals that will be with her during her pregnancy and will offer advice to make
the experience as positive as possible. I learned that mother’s are typically given prenatal and

postnatal care from a midwife, as opposed to a physician as in the United States. Also, the

maternal death rate in this country is extremely low with there being about 4 deaths out of every

100,000 births per year. This is party due to the fact that mothers’ have access to many

healthcare facilities and are comforted throughout the entire process. Finally, the country does

have a very low c-section rate which is another factor in why labor and delivery is so successful.

Women in Sweden are also given the choice of whether or not they want medical intervention or

medication during labor, and they are not judged for their decision.

Finally, I studied the birthing process in Korea. They have interesting cultural values and

beliefs such as avoiding certain foods like crackers since they break, and duck because the child

would have webbed feet. This reflects their idea that what occurs prior to the delivery of a baby

will translate onto the baby, so mothers’ try to ensure they have an overall positive experience

prior to labor. There are certain practices that are followed surrounding the birthing process like

how fathers are typically not with mothers during labor, which is different from Western

traditions. Also, mothers are not encouraged to medicate during labor, but rather seek other ways

to alleviate pain through music, ​aromatherapy, acupressure. Women are also almost forced to

recieve an episiotomy, which is a surgical incision made to help the baby come out easier. Part of

the reason it seems forced is because mothers’ do not tell their physician how they are feeling,

rather they are expected to follow the doctor and not give them any instruction.