Excerpted from Birth as an American Rite of Passage
Bassinet/Warmer
Description and Official Rationale
The baby must be kept warm and must be observed, so she or he will be wrapped up in a blanket and placed in the nursery in a plastic bassinet. Should she get too cold, or develop respiratory difficulty, she will be transferred to a radiant warmer.
Physiological Effects and Ritual Purposes
Placing the infant in a separate room to sleep is characteristic only of technocratic society. In the vast majority of human societies, and among other primate species, the infant sleeps in a social environment with direct, skin-to-skin contact between infant and caretaker (Laughlin 1990:43). James McKenna and his colleagues have demonstrated through sleep research that the breathing patterns of mothers and babies who sleep together synchronize, and have found evidence to suggest that nocturnal separation may contribute to the problems of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) (McKenna et al. 1990).
Stephen Thayer calls North America a "noncontact culture" with low rates of touch as compared to "contact cultures" such as those around the Mediterranean. For example, a cross-cultural study of touch between adults and children 2 to 5 years old found that although touch rates for retrieving or punishing were the same in all cultures studied (Greece, the USSR, and the U.S.), touch rates for soothing, holding, and play were significantly lower in the U.S. (Thayer 1989). Concomitantly, although Trevathan points out that "most of us who were born between 1935 and 1975 can attest to our health and that of our mothers, despite the fact that we were separated from each other for several hours or even days after birth," (1987:212) she allows herself the luxury, in a footnote, of the following speculation:
It is intriguing that this is the age group that has experienced spiralling divorce rates, increased incidence of child abuse, and greater extent of familial alienation than that seen in previous generations, and the temptation to associate this with U.S. birth practices is hard to resist. -Trevathan 1987:212
Whether or not there is an actual connection between divorce, child abuse, and American birth practices, the symbolic association is quite clear. The routine separation of mothers and babies at birth, and the placement of the baby in a bassinet in another room, mirrors and perhaps works to reinforce the patterns of separation that characterize both our society and our social treatment of children. Commented Marcia McCoy:
The other day I saw a friend with her new baby for the first time. She never puts that child down--that baby is always in her arms. I don't know how she does it, but she is so graceful about it that the baby never seems to have any trouble sleeping, even when her mother is moving around or talking. It made me realize that I had never seen a mother constantly connected to her child like that. It looked so strange to me that I found myself wanting to rush out and buy her a stroller or an infant seat.
From the viewpoint of the hospital staff, I think that placing a baby in a clear plastic box is like telling a story about an experience you had for the very first time: it is to give form, order, and definition--a beginning, middle, and end--to a creature now defined as human because she is suddenly in her proper cultural space.
The hospital bassinet, with its clean straight lines, its see-through plastic walls, and its soft blankets gives a special message, not only to the hospital staff, but also to the newborn baby. A symbol of society itself, the bassinet tells the baby that he or she belongs to society more than to its mother, and that the only sure comfort, peace, and warmth in life will come ultimately not from people but from society and its products. The warmer, when used, intensifies this message by adding to it the additional message that machines are more reliable than mothers. The mother's womb is replaced by the womb of culture, which, comfortably or uncomfortably, cradles us all.
© Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD Used with Permission
Return to Introduction
Return to Top
You May Also Be Interested In:Read some Sample Birth Plans and get information to help put your birth plan together. Find out about ways to reduce unnecessary pain in labor. Learn ways to handle Childbirth Challenges. Find out what normal labor is like. Review the birth plan options that may be available to you. |
|
© Copyright 2000-2008 Jennifer VanderLaan and Birthing Naturally
Home | Site Index | Disclaimer | Contact
|