You've hit on a topic that I also find fascinating as well as quite disturbing.
I've never before encountered the term "medicalization" but it immediately makes perfect sense. I've also not before had such a clarifying mental spotlight cast on the specific example of pregnancy and childbirth as something that has been wrenched from the realm of "normal" and re-cast into a medical context.
Growing up as I have in a society where the medicalization of pregnancy had already occurred, seeing things from that perspective seemed so normal. I have for some time been attracted to news and stories of midwives, and I even know a fine and successful midwife personally. However, I've never quite been able to clearly state what went wrong.
Thanks to your article, I now see and understand the transition from treating pregnancy as normal to treating it as something abnormal. I now understand the matter more clearly and in a way that I will from now on be able to verbalize. Thank you!
I'm sorry I missed voting for your earlier article, but I shall remedy that... ;)
Thank you for the comment. You dont' have to worry about voting. I just love getting a single comment from you because they are always so great to read. Medicalization is a subject I find fascinating and I did a lot of research on it in college. In modern times is a pretty common thing. I wrote about it in the article I listed at the bottom of the post. The medical industry is big business so taking normal things and turning them into medical issues happens all the time for the sake of making money. It's also a great way to control patients by making them trust medical professionals over alternative sources even though doctors don't always have the best answers but the answers that help the business aspect function. Pregnancy is interesting because of the move to put it back into the hands of women with the return of midwives, home births, alternative birthing methods, etc. This is 3 parter so I'll touch on that stuff in a later post.
Reminds me of "financialization", which is the process of matching up every asset with an equal amount of debt under the mistaken illusion that the debt also represents an asset, and under the further mistaken illusion that "financializing" the value of this asset by matching it with debt will allow that wealth to be put to better use somewhere else in the system. It creates the impression that society can only function if the experts control each and every move of the economy.
Similarly, medicalization would be the categorizing of every normal body process as pathology, as your Inhorn quote notes.
This creates the mistaken impression that society cannot function unless each and every bodily process is observed, monitored, and controlled.
If the medical system had any real capacity to heal, that might make sense. But their only contribution towards health is illness surveillance, which is all that "preventative medicine" involves -- continually scanning for disease.
They don't understand the fundamental capacity and tendency of the body to heal itself. As far as they are concerned, only doctors can heal. Which is nonsense.
That being said, when it comes to childbirth, 99.9% of the time things go well. The problem is the 0.1% of the time that they don't . In that case, you need help right here, right now -- minutes make a difference in these situations.
So what we need are big hospitals with cheap rooms overseen by midwives, with an OB doctor on call and in house. That way you get both -- cheap, minimally invasive childbirth for those who don't need more, but help available to be called in quickly if you need it.
Free market in health care would push us back in that direction. But first people would have to lose faith in insurance. Only once insurance collapses or becomes unaffordable for almost everyone can the system change for the better.
Wow! Thank you so much for the great comment. I worked hard on this post so I really enjoy hearing what others thought. I have never heard of financialization before but I kind of knew the concept even though I didn't know the word.
I think you hit the nail on the head with what I've studied about medicalization. I love the idea of cheap hospitals with midwives. A lot of the alternative birthing clinics are like that and focus on comfort and health over rules/protocol, insurance, and more.
The medical industry is so messed up in their priorities....money over helping people. Medicalization is a process to control people to keep the medical establishment in power to profit. That's why doctors won't prescribe self treatment or alternative medicines because the potentially lose control over patients as the seek outside treatments.
I'm working on part 2 which deals with modern times. In modern society it's interesting to see people push for more choices and alternative methods.
The medical system, like all of our systems of organized complexity such as our economy and the environment, is a complicated beast. It is easy to presume in the financial sector, for example, that the people busily issuing debt are selfish and self absorbed and know exactly what poison they are dripping into the economy -- but when you sit down and talk with them, they don't see it that way. They are just helping Joe buy a small company that holds a patent that he needs, or helping Jim equitize some of the value of his company so he can use that money to put a new roof on his shop. Each and every step makes some logical sense -- it is only when you scan back and look at the big picture that you can see how these all work together to create a bubble of debt that in aggregate is bad for everyone -- even though the front half of this bubble, before the crash, feels great, it's the last half of the bubble that's the killer.
Similarly, doctors don't necessarily refuse to prescribe self treatment or alternative medicines because they know they will work and don't want to lose patients -- very few doctors are selfish like that. Most of them won't prescribe alternative treatments because their paradigm has taught them that these are jokes and useless, and they don't depend on self treatment because the patients themselves won't do it. For example, type II diabetes is considered a "disease" but it is just a syndrome that happens when you get fat, get too little exercise, and base too much of your diet on carbohydrates. It can be easily cured 99% of the time by going off carbs, losing weight, and exercising regularly. And doctors usually give patients this information, and even if they don't get the information from their doctor, that information is floating around out there for anyone with the interest in finding it. And this is not new information -- medical books from 1900 had lists of all the carbs people with diabetes shouldn't eat even though they didn't really understand the concept of carbohydrates.
The problem is that people know there is a choice, which is to go on meds, which is easy, instead of changing their lifestyle, which is hard. So they make half hearted attempts at change, which don't work, and then stay on meds for the rest of their lives. Problem is, the meds don't work as well as the normal body, so they get endless complications like infections, kidney failure, amputations, strokes, and heart attacks. And that expense, keeping people alive long after their body has given up, is the back half of the medical bubble -- that's the killer expense that will bankrupt the economy.
The root of the problem from my perspective isn't the people giving the care or extending the loans. It's the people behind those people, the people who set the rules and set the paradigm -- those are the folks who are really to blame. Understanding how we got where we are will be incomplete from my perspective until we also consider the corrupting influence that insurance, both public and private, has had on the process, the corrupting influence of medical licensure requirements that has in part prevented the emergence of alternatives, and on the financial side of things the corrupting effects of legal tender laws and government backstopping of banks.
Sorry for the long reply. Thanks again for a good article -- looking forward to your next one!
I love long replies!! lol. You could write your own article on the subject. If you ever do feel free to drop a link in a comment on one of my posts.
Everything you say I agree with. The medical world is so complex when you look at it from a societal point of view. In experiencing the medical system myself when I was pregnant it was a fascinating experience as a sociologist (what I am). I had gestational diabetes and a got a random doctor assigned to me who I only saw once. He told me I had it and gave me insulin and needles to give myself shots right off the bat. He acted like I was an idiot for refusing them for non-medicine methods (diet change and scheduled eating). The diabetes went away after the pregnancy was over. It was interesting because doctors are socialized to think a certain way and act a certain way and they exert their influence over you as a way of controlling you.
You're right about the pills too. My mom has diabetes and won't change her lifestyle but the drugs, longterm have wrecked her body. She gets new pills for the new problems they create and is completely dependent on those meds because of her own choices and belief the doctors are giving them to her because they are the best thing for her.
Welcome, my companion @marxrab
You've hit on a subject that I find interesting and in addition very exasperating.
I've at no other time experienced the expression "medicalization" yet it promptly bodes well. I've additionally not before had such an elucidating mental spotlight cast on the particular case of pregnancy and labor as something that has been torqued from the domain of "typical" and re-cast into a medicinal setting.
Growing up as I have in a general public where the medicalization of pregnancy had just happened, seeing things from that viewpoint appeared to be so typical. I have for quite a while been pulled in to news and stories of birthing specialists, and I even know a fine and fruitful maternity specialist by and by. In any case, I've never fully possessed the capacity to unmistakably state what turned out badly.
Because of your article, I now observe and comprehend the change from regarding pregnancy as typical to regarding it as something strange. I now comprehend the issue all the more obviously and in a way that I will starting now and into the foreseeable future have the capacity to verbalize. Much obliged to you!
I'm sad I missed voting in favor of your prior article, yet I should cure that.
Thank you for the well thought out comment. It's such an interesting topic. I'm glad I introduced you to the concept and you got something from my writing.
Found this through the steemSTEM digest. Good post! Well written and rather formal, I felt like I was reading a university essay, which isn't a bad thing: it means it's serious and well-researched. And it's an interesting topic. And the rest of your blog looks interesting too. So I'll be following!
Thank you so much! With this 3 part series I was trying really hard to write a steemSTEM worthy post. I feel like all the STEM articles set the bar high in terms of writing skills. Typically I just write whatever is on my mind. I'm a doctoral student so I'm an expert as writing research papers with citations and such. I didn't know if people on steemit would care to read a more academic post so this is my first try at it. Thanks for reading it and I appreciate your kind words.
Really cool topic. I never thought of how odd it is that childbirth transitioned from a domestic/natural part of life to something done in a hospital. Looking forward to the next in this series!
Medicalization of Pregnancy and Childbirth are well known The History of Midwives To A Male Dominated Doctoral Profession are appreciated well.and this is awesome. @marxrab
Greetings, my friend @marxrab,
You've hit on a topic that I also find fascinating as well as quite disturbing.
I've never before encountered the term "medicalization" but it immediately makes perfect sense. I've also not before had such a clarifying mental spotlight cast on the specific example of pregnancy and childbirth as something that has been wrenched from the realm of "normal" and re-cast into a medical context.
Growing up as I have in a society where the medicalization of pregnancy had already occurred, seeing things from that perspective seemed so normal. I have for some time been attracted to news and stories of midwives, and I even know a fine and successful midwife personally. However, I've never quite been able to clearly state what went wrong.
Thanks to your article, I now see and understand the transition from treating pregnancy as normal to treating it as something abnormal. I now understand the matter more clearly and in a way that I will from now on be able to verbalize. Thank you!
I'm sorry I missed voting for your earlier article, but I shall remedy that... ;)
😄😇😄
Thank you for the comment. You dont' have to worry about voting. I just love getting a single comment from you because they are always so great to read. Medicalization is a subject I find fascinating and I did a lot of research on it in college. In modern times is a pretty common thing. I wrote about it in the article I listed at the bottom of the post. The medical industry is big business so taking normal things and turning them into medical issues happens all the time for the sake of making money. It's also a great way to control patients by making them trust medical professionals over alternative sources even though doctors don't always have the best answers but the answers that help the business aspect function. Pregnancy is interesting because of the move to put it back into the hands of women with the return of midwives, home births, alternative birthing methods, etc. This is 3 parter so I'll touch on that stuff in a later post.
Medicalization -- great term!
Reminds me of "financialization", which is the process of matching up every asset with an equal amount of debt under the mistaken illusion that the debt also represents an asset, and under the further mistaken illusion that "financializing" the value of this asset by matching it with debt will allow that wealth to be put to better use somewhere else in the system. It creates the impression that society can only function if the experts control each and every move of the economy.
Similarly, medicalization would be the categorizing of every normal body process as pathology, as your Inhorn quote notes.
This creates the mistaken impression that society cannot function unless each and every bodily process is observed, monitored, and controlled.
If the medical system had any real capacity to heal, that might make sense. But their only contribution towards health is illness surveillance, which is all that "preventative medicine" involves -- continually scanning for disease.
They don't understand the fundamental capacity and tendency of the body to heal itself. As far as they are concerned, only doctors can heal. Which is nonsense.
That being said, when it comes to childbirth, 99.9% of the time things go well. The problem is the 0.1% of the time that they don't . In that case, you need help right here, right now -- minutes make a difference in these situations.
So what we need are big hospitals with cheap rooms overseen by midwives, with an OB doctor on call and in house. That way you get both -- cheap, minimally invasive childbirth for those who don't need more, but help available to be called in quickly if you need it.
Free market in health care would push us back in that direction. But first people would have to lose faith in insurance. Only once insurance collapses or becomes unaffordable for almost everyone can the system change for the better.
Wow! Thank you so much for the great comment. I worked hard on this post so I really enjoy hearing what others thought. I have never heard of financialization before but I kind of knew the concept even though I didn't know the word.
I think you hit the nail on the head with what I've studied about medicalization. I love the idea of cheap hospitals with midwives. A lot of the alternative birthing clinics are like that and focus on comfort and health over rules/protocol, insurance, and more.
The medical industry is so messed up in their priorities....money over helping people. Medicalization is a process to control people to keep the medical establishment in power to profit. That's why doctors won't prescribe self treatment or alternative medicines because the potentially lose control over patients as the seek outside treatments.
I'm working on part 2 which deals with modern times. In modern society it's interesting to see people push for more choices and alternative methods.
The medical system, like all of our systems of organized complexity such as our economy and the environment, is a complicated beast. It is easy to presume in the financial sector, for example, that the people busily issuing debt are selfish and self absorbed and know exactly what poison they are dripping into the economy -- but when you sit down and talk with them, they don't see it that way. They are just helping Joe buy a small company that holds a patent that he needs, or helping Jim equitize some of the value of his company so he can use that money to put a new roof on his shop. Each and every step makes some logical sense -- it is only when you scan back and look at the big picture that you can see how these all work together to create a bubble of debt that in aggregate is bad for everyone -- even though the front half of this bubble, before the crash, feels great, it's the last half of the bubble that's the killer.
Similarly, doctors don't necessarily refuse to prescribe self treatment or alternative medicines because they know they will work and don't want to lose patients -- very few doctors are selfish like that. Most of them won't prescribe alternative treatments because their paradigm has taught them that these are jokes and useless, and they don't depend on self treatment because the patients themselves won't do it. For example, type II diabetes is considered a "disease" but it is just a syndrome that happens when you get fat, get too little exercise, and base too much of your diet on carbohydrates. It can be easily cured 99% of the time by going off carbs, losing weight, and exercising regularly. And doctors usually give patients this information, and even if they don't get the information from their doctor, that information is floating around out there for anyone with the interest in finding it. And this is not new information -- medical books from 1900 had lists of all the carbs people with diabetes shouldn't eat even though they didn't really understand the concept of carbohydrates.
The problem is that people know there is a choice, which is to go on meds, which is easy, instead of changing their lifestyle, which is hard. So they make half hearted attempts at change, which don't work, and then stay on meds for the rest of their lives. Problem is, the meds don't work as well as the normal body, so they get endless complications like infections, kidney failure, amputations, strokes, and heart attacks. And that expense, keeping people alive long after their body has given up, is the back half of the medical bubble -- that's the killer expense that will bankrupt the economy.
The root of the problem from my perspective isn't the people giving the care or extending the loans. It's the people behind those people, the people who set the rules and set the paradigm -- those are the folks who are really to blame. Understanding how we got where we are will be incomplete from my perspective until we also consider the corrupting influence that insurance, both public and private, has had on the process, the corrupting influence of medical licensure requirements that has in part prevented the emergence of alternatives, and on the financial side of things the corrupting effects of legal tender laws and government backstopping of banks.
Sorry for the long reply. Thanks again for a good article -- looking forward to your next one!
I love long replies!! lol. You could write your own article on the subject. If you ever do feel free to drop a link in a comment on one of my posts.
Everything you say I agree with. The medical world is so complex when you look at it from a societal point of view. In experiencing the medical system myself when I was pregnant it was a fascinating experience as a sociologist (what I am). I had gestational diabetes and a got a random doctor assigned to me who I only saw once. He told me I had it and gave me insulin and needles to give myself shots right off the bat. He acted like I was an idiot for refusing them for non-medicine methods (diet change and scheduled eating). The diabetes went away after the pregnancy was over. It was interesting because doctors are socialized to think a certain way and act a certain way and they exert their influence over you as a way of controlling you.
You're right about the pills too. My mom has diabetes and won't change her lifestyle but the drugs, longterm have wrecked her body. She gets new pills for the new problems they create and is completely dependent on those meds because of her own choices and belief the doctors are giving them to her because they are the best thing for her.
Here's the link for part 2 if you want it. https://steemit.com/steemstem/@marxrab/the-medicalization-of-pregnancy-modern-medicine-as-a-form-of-social-control
Welcome, my companion @marxrab
You've hit on a subject that I find interesting and in addition very exasperating.
I've at no other time experienced the expression "medicalization" yet it promptly bodes well. I've additionally not before had such an elucidating mental spotlight cast on the particular case of pregnancy and labor as something that has been torqued from the domain of "typical" and re-cast into a medicinal setting.
Growing up as I have in a general public where the medicalization of pregnancy had just happened, seeing things from that viewpoint appeared to be so typical. I have for quite a while been pulled in to news and stories of birthing specialists, and I even know a fine and fruitful maternity specialist by and by. In any case, I've never fully possessed the capacity to unmistakably state what turned out badly.
Because of your article, I now observe and comprehend the change from regarding pregnancy as typical to regarding it as something strange. I now comprehend the issue all the more obviously and in a way that I will starting now and into the foreseeable future have the capacity to verbalize. Much obliged to you!
I'm sad I missed voting in favor of your prior article, yet I should cure that.
Thank you for the well thought out comment. It's such an interesting topic. I'm glad I introduced you to the concept and you got something from my writing.
Found this through the steemSTEM digest. Good post! Well written and rather formal, I felt like I was reading a university essay, which isn't a bad thing: it means it's serious and well-researched. And it's an interesting topic. And the rest of your blog looks interesting too. So I'll be following!
Thank you so much! With this 3 part series I was trying really hard to write a steemSTEM worthy post. I feel like all the STEM articles set the bar high in terms of writing skills. Typically I just write whatever is on my mind. I'm a doctoral student so I'm an expert as writing research papers with citations and such. I didn't know if people on steemit would care to read a more academic post so this is my first try at it. Thanks for reading it and I appreciate your kind words.
Really cool topic. I never thought of how odd it is that childbirth transitioned from a domestic/natural part of life to something done in a hospital. Looking forward to the next in this series!
Thank you so much!!!!
Thank you @marxrab because today I am learning something new..... Nice to learn things about our lives.
I'll wait for the second part....
Thank you! I'm glad I could teach you something new!
Thanks for all the informations. This article is truly interesting!
Olivia D.
Looking forward to part 2
Medicalization of Pregnancy and Childbirth are well known The History of Midwives To A Male Dominated Doctoral Profession are appreciated well.and this is awesome.
@marxrab