PSYC 320 Lecture Notes - Prenatal Development, Menopause, Muscle Tone

• School: University of Victoria
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 320
• Professor: Barbara Ehlting

Document Summary

Many encounters with the health care system for women do not involve illness but occur as a result of contraception, pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. These functions have been completed throughout history with little medical assistance; they became increasingly medicalized during the 19th and 20th centuries. During this time college education was largely restricted to men. Some critics have argued that women are burdened by giving birth in sterile, impersonal surrounding are being subjected to increasingly large hospital bills for these services. According to this argument birth is a natural process requiring no medical intervention. However, comparing statistics from underdeveloped countries and fro the. United states in the years before routine medical care during pregnancy and delivery, death could also be as natural a process. Women"s more numerous consultations with health care professionals are due largely to their complex reproductive systems.