How to Give Birth in America, Pt. 2

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Diabolical Lies 15 min 2 speakers 7 chapters transcribed 18 days ago

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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

What is the episode’s main focus on childbirth in America?

Caro Claire Burke 0:00

I'm so excited. Okay. Recording Iight ho, we're good. All right. I'm scared. You should be. You fucking should be. Today's episode of Diabolical Lies is brought to you by Pregnancy Brain, which, as it turns out, is extremely real. And as I am on week six of Book Tour and month six of actually being pregnant, I'm gonna be honest and say I forgot sponsors for this week's episode. And instead, I spent I spent my free hour before this conversation because I did have a free hour before this conversation eating gelato on a park bench and thinking about. Nothing.

Katie Gatti Tassin 0:37

That's great. I told Kara that I wanted to research to prepare for this episode 'cause I don't have pregnancy brain and therefore do not have an excuse. And she told me to end I quote, Don't be a coward. So here I am. Bravely showing up, just stewing in my own ignorance to contribute absolutely nothing of substance, but good vibes. I will bring good vibes, and that is my promise to all of you.

Caro Claire Burke 1:02

You have to bring humor into the conversation today. That's your job.

Katie Gatti Tassin 1:06

I can't wait to try to think about uh puns f about m maternal mortality.

Caro Claire Burke 1:12

Okay, so Katie, I decided I wanted to do this quote unquote series about eight months ago. Which is like, I don't know man. It's been eight months. I thought we would be like six episodes into the series. Um, anyways, this is how to give birth in America part two. You might need a refresher. Katie, do you remember literally anything at all from that conversation?

Katie Gatti Tassin 1:42

You know, I knew you were gonna ask me that. So this morning I was trying to remember

Why do the hosts issue a medical disclaimer at the start?

Katie Gatti Tassin 1:48

I just remember this theme of like the idea that childbirth is supernatural and our bodies were made to do this is like not quite right. Like true in some ways, but not in others, because of our like anatomical standing upright, etc. Uh I we talked about a pelvic floor stuff. I vaguely recall that. recall that

Caro Claire Burke 2:10

uterine prolapse. I made you watch a labor video and you squealed Okay, so I I would for anyone who's listening and who hasn't listened to that episode, you might want to listen to that first. We covered essentially the 19th century of childbirth practices in America. We got an understanding of what childbirth was like for women in America pre-hospital delivery normalization. We got an understanding of how Puritan culture in particular drove beliefs around childbirth.

Katie Gatti Tassin 2:37

Oh yeah, I forgot how much we talked about midwives.

Caro Claire Burke 2:39

Yeah. We did talk a lot about midwives and their significance and all the varied levels of skill that they had and how they were essentially in the process of being crowded out of the field as hospitals were being erected and kind of established as an industry. So Today I wanna make two grounding statements that I actually made at the beginning of that conversation as well. Number one, I always feel an urge to give like a million warning statements. We are podcasters. We are not doctors or midwives.

Katie Gatti Tassin 3:09

Omnibus disclaimer.

Caro Claire Burke 3:11

I feel like I want to do the thing of like an insurance commercial where it's like everything that I say is probably going to be incorrect, and you should speak to a doctor and like don't make any decisions about your own personal pregnancy based off what I'm talking about. This is entertainment. Yeah. The the whole point of this is talking about childbirth on a very broad scale. And I think whenever someone is pregnant or about to give birth or having given birth, it's very personal. And so I just want to Say explicitly, this is not about anyone's individual decisions. We're also going to be talking pretty intensely about a number of elements of birth that have happened in the wake of hospital births.

Caro Claire Burke 3:47

We're going to be talking about the C section at length today. So, you know, listen to this at your own comfort level. And the second statement is something I said to you in that first episode as well, which is that I am obsessed with childbirth and have been long before. Or I became pregnant, or even knew I wanted to become pregnant, because I just feel like it is one of those rare topics that defies political categorization. Like we are constantly sliding left and right in our relationship to giving birth and our relationship to motherhood.