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Article: Bed rest: Medical solution to a social problem
- Article from:
- International Journal of Childbirth Education
- Article date:
- June 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright INTERNATIONAL CHILDBIRTH EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Jun 2001. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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POLITICAL ISSUES
Every culture has special rituals and social norms that protect pregnant women; without them, humankind and cultures would not survive. For example, many cultures forbid contact with the dead (Pierroutsakos 2000) or with menstruating women (Delaney 2000). There is also much cultural wisdom surrounding what foods pregnant women should and should not eat (Priya 1992). Some of these rituals and norms seem universally rational and understandable among cultures. In other cases, what is rational and safe to one group is crazy and dangerous to another. For example, in some cultures sexual contact between husband and wife is encouraged, in others it is forbidden, and in still ...