DONA International (1992– )In 1992, five maternal-infant health researchers founded Doulas of North America, later renamed DONA International to train certified birth attendants called doulas to provide care to pregnant women both before and after the birthing process. Annie Kennedy, John Kennell, Marshall Klaus, Phyllis Klaus, and Penny Simkin used the term doula, derived from the Greek word for woman servant, to describe a female birthing aide who provides non-medical emotional and physical support to laboring pregnant women. Eventually renamed DONA International, the
organization has certified over 12,000 doulas as of 2017.
“Kangaroo Care Is Effective in Diminishing Pain Response in Preterm Neonates” (2003), by Celeste Johnston, Bonnie Stevens, Janet Pinelli, Sharyn Gibbins, Francoise Filion, Anne Jack, Susan Steele, Kristina Boyer, and Annie VeilleuxIn the 2003 article “Kangaroo Care Is Effective in Diminishing Pain Response in Preterm Neonates”, Celeste Johnston, Bonnie Stevens, Janet Pinelli, and their colleagues evaluate the effectiveness of the Kangaroo Mother Care position in decreasing the pain response of preterm infants who undergo a heel lance procedure for blood collection. Kangaroo Mother Care is a method of treatment for premature and low birth weight infants that involves exclusive breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact between a mother and her infant in what is called the kangaroo position.
The Business of Being Born (2008)
The Whelan Method of Sex Selection
The Magdalene Sisters (2002)In 2002, Miramax Entertainment released
The Magdalene Sisters, a film that portrays an interpretation of the true events experienced by four young women who were forcibly placed into a Magdalene asylum in Dublin, Ireland, in 1964. Catholic nuns ran Magdalene asylums throughout the world, where they forced women whom society deemed sexually promiscuous to perform hard labor in their laundry facilities. The film portrays the experiences of four women, Margaret, Bernadette, Rose, and Crispina, as they experienced negative treatment from the nuns and sought escape. Directed by Peter Mullan,
The Magdalene Sisters provided a means to see how women, including unwed mothers, prostitutes, and those with disabilities, were affected by Magdalene laundries in Ireland.
Chernobyl Heart (2003)In 2003, HBO Original Programming released the documentary
Chernobyl Heart. Maryann De Leo directed and produced the film, which is about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident and how the
radiation from that accident has affected people living in the area. Side effects have included mental disabilities, physical disabilities, and genetic mutations. The documentary follows Adi Roche, the founder of Chernobyl Children International, a non-profit humanitarian
organization headquartered in Cork, Ireland, as she interviews people who live in the areas that Chernobyl contaminated with
radiation.
Gonzales v. <a href="/search?text=Planned%20Parenthood%20Federation%20of%20America" title="" class="lexicon-term">Planned Parenthood Federation of America</a>, Inc. (2007)
Barbara Seaman (1935–2008)Barbara Seaman was a writer, investigator, and advocate for female healthcare rights during the twentieth century in the United States. Seaman’s work addressed the gendered prejudice she observed in the US healthcare system and argued that women of the 1960s lacked the proper tools to make informed decisions about
pregnancy care, breastfeeding, childbirth, and
contraception. Seaman wrote the book
The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill in 1969 to expose the dangers in prescribing and consuming high doses of
estrogen in the form of
birth control.
“The ‘Kangaroo-Method’ for Treating Low Birth <a href="/search?text=Weight" title="" class="lexicon-term">Weight</a> Babies in a Developing Country” (1994), by Nils Bergman and Agneta JürisooIn the 1994 article “The ‘Kangaroo-Method’ for Treating Low Birth
Weight Babies in a Developing Country,” authors Nils Bergman and Agneta Jürisoo evaluate the effectiveness of the Kangaroo Care method in treating low birth weight infants at Manama Mission Hospital in Gwanda, Zimbabwe. Low birth weight infants face many medical complications. In developing countries, where the prevalence of low birth weight infants is highest, there is limited access to the technology or skilled personnel required to keep those infants alive.
