But is it enough just to know the facts?

Thinking about feelings 1. Work in pairs. 2. Person A faces the screen & Person B looks away. 3. Person A watches the video clip (without sound) and describes it to Person B. 4. Remember to describe the feelings of the people in the clip

Managing feelings  How did the mother feel in the clip?  How did the doctors behave?  How do patients imagine childbirth?  Compare the two paintings on the next slide. Think about their:  Form – are they realist paintings?  Framing & content – what do you see?  Composition– the relationship between the participants

Images of childbirth

Managing feelings  The UK National Health Service advises pregnant mothers to write a birth plan to help manage their feelings during labour.  The following slide has some of the questions you might ask.  Try them out with a partner.

Your birth plan 1. Where would you like to give birth? In hospital? At home? 2. Who would you like to be with you? 3. What position would you like to be in during labour? 4. Would you like pain relief? 5. Where do you want your birth partner to stand? 6. What kind of music would you like played? 7. Who should cut the umbilical cord?

What about the father?

After childbirth? Morning Song by Sylvia Plath Love set you going like a fat gold watch. The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry Took its place among the elements. Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue. In a drafty museum, your nakedness Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls. I'm no more your mother Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow Effacement at the wind's hand. All night your moth-breath Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen: A far sea moves in my ear. One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral In my Victorian nightgown. Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try Your handful of notes; The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Close reading techniques  Frame:  Form:  Time:  Plot:  Imagery:

Close reading techniques  Frame: the mother addresses the baby  Form: poem  Time: here and now  Plot: the baby commands the mother  Imagery:  Baby = fat gold watch, new statue, moth, cat,  Mother = blank wall, disappearing cloud, cow, old (in floral Victorian nightgown)

Purpose of close reading  Close reading helps us understand patients’ fears, anxieties, guilt and shame.  We need to attend to more than clinical knowledge