HW 45 - Reply to Other People's Comments

From Lily (protege):

I really liked the visual representation, of when the labor period was separated into Caesarean and natural birth. I also liked the personal connections throughout the project, those of your own birth and delivery. I thought you put quite a lot of effort into the entire project, which made the poster very organised and easy to understand.

To Lily:

Thank you! It took me quite some time to figure out how to show the two possible endings of labor and I'm glad someone noticed it. As for the stories, my mom keeps telling me more and more but unfortunately there wasn't enough space for all of them on my poster. 

From Kasia - My mom (mentor):

I like the idea of visualizing the process of giving birth. Your concept is to show the growing tension throughout time. This may help people who were not (or will never be) directly involved in the process to imagine what the whole process looks like.
It is obvious, but I have to mention, that your stories are very personal to me. They gave me an opportunity to recall everything once again. I must say I was lucky that everything went so smoothly for me.

I think that one of the aspects which may have been worth mentioning is that the mother should always concentrate not on her own pain but on the safe delivery of her baby. She should always bear in mind that it is more difficult for the baby than for the mom. Inside the womb, a baby feels safe and cozy. It is warm, the light is soft, it hears only soothing sounds of the intestines and the mother's heartbeat. Then, all of a sudden, something starts to happen that is intended to change everything. Water disappears, contractions push and the baby gets tightly squeezed. While outside, it has to breath by itself, it is suddenly surrounded by bright light, noise, and lots of fuss. There are big hands that touching and examining it. The air and temperature seem very strange. Even fabric and beds are uncomfortable. 

If such aspects are taken into consideration by the mom, the baby is not a trouble and pain paker, but is a little being which needs a lot of help. This is a psychological issue which must be emphasized while a pregnant mom is preparing herself for giving birth.

To Mom:

You are right, one of my intentions was to initiate into labor those, who may never get the chance to experience it themselves. I wonder if reading your stories being told by someone else make you look at them differently. After all, you were the main character. I hope I didn't switch things around. I did my best to re-tell them just as I heard them from you.

You made a good point here. Labor is a bigger stress for the baby than it is for the mother. Some people seem to even forget about the baby and focus on the mother's pain. She, of course, is important too but, as you said, her job is to deliver the baby to our world whatever it takes. I wish I had remembered to include this in my project. 

Thank you for your insight!

From Bianca (classmate):

Martyna,
I thought your presentation/poster was awesome. The colors did birth justice as it is truly a miracle. You draw an abstract representation of birth and represent the usual boring phrases, "as the birth progressed, the contractions get stronger" with a red tube that zig zags and gets bigger as it progresses to the right of the poster. You strive to create a visual of the process of birth with the help of anecdotes from your family friend. You clearly describe what Pitocin, Cesarean Section, and Epidurals are capable of doing.

I appreciate that you chose to do something creative. I have not yet seen anyone make a poster, even when the option was available. The visuals really help further your story/timeline. The timeline was helpful and extremely structured. I value the fact that you were able to make the clear connections between your story and drawings.

Your project matters to me because I am a woman, capable of giving birth. Once I am old enough, I will want to have a baby. It's important, to me, to know what the effects of pitocin are and the possible complications of a cesarean section. This knowledge would be helpful in the event that I want to create a birth plan or acknowledge when my obstetrician or midwife makes a suggestion rather than thinking it was a necessary course of action to take.

I wish you had gone into more depth about how investigating birth was important to you. Although it was easy to understand the ideas you were trying to get across, I could not identify the intent in your choosing to do this project.

Great Work! I wish I could have done something like this to make my project more aesthetically pleasing.  

To Bianca:

I am glad my project was clear and easy to read and that you understood what I wanted to communicate through my timeline. I did my best to make it understandable even without reading the explanations.

Indeed, a pregnant woman has to know what is happening to her. I is never too early to start finding out all the small, yet most important, things about labor and its nice to know that my project expanded your knowledge about it all. 

You are right, I could have maybe included a little summary or introduction to the whole process, even somewhere off to the side. I will remember that for my future projects, thank you!