VOA慢速英语2014 Home Birth Movement Grows in the US

 

Home Birth Movement Grows in the US 

Welcome to American Mosaic¹ from VOA Learning English. 

I’m June Simms.

On the show today a report on an old and newly popular birthing practice.

We also hear some great jazz from the past brought to new life in a Broadway musical.

Home Births in the US Becoming More Common

Most births in the United States take place in hospitals.  Women giving birth are under the care of doctors, armed with modern drugs and equipment.  About one in three babies arrive through a surgical² operation called a Caesarean section.  However, a growing number of parents-to be are choosing a different way. Steve Ember reports.

Emilie Jacobs and her husband, Rowan Finnegan, are preparing to welcome their second child.  The baby will be born at their home --- just like their first child, 22-month-old Elias.  The same nurse-midwife will help with this birth, too.  If all goes well it will be a peaceful birth, without medicine, high tech machinery³ or surgery.

“And then after giving birth, straight into my own shower, into my own bed, with our new family and our home.  There’s just…there’s just nothing like that.”

Emilie Jacobs attended medical school, so she has attended hospital births.  She thinks doctors consider hospital rules and possible legal risks in administering birth care more than the needs of the women they serve.

“It’s not an illness to be pregnant, it’s a beautiful experience, and if you feel supported and have the right kind of support, to labor⁴ and give birth in your own home is such a gift.”

Home births have risen sharply in recent years.  There are now about 30,000 such deliveries across the country each year. However, that number still represents less than one percent of all U.S. births. 

A 2008 documentary, “The Business of Being Born,” helped increase the popularity of home births.  The documentary included film of untroubled births in homes, including some in warm water.  Other supporters of home birth have spread the idea with video of their water births with midwives assisting.

Critics disagree about the safety of home births.  One study found that babies born at home are ten times likelier to born dead.  The study found that they are also four times more likely to have serious neurological problems.

The findings were reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.  Study co-author Dr. Jack⁵ Chervenak is with the New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

“We here on our labor and delivery unit fight for seconds when an unexpected fetal distress⁶ occurs, we do drills, so that we plan an emergency Caesarean and fight for seconds.  If someone is as much as one block away from this hospital, it’s too far.”

But others say the study had problems.  Tina Johnson is with the American College of Nurse Midwives.

“He used a lot of flawed data and drew a lot of conclusions that are inconsistent with all of the other research that’s out there currently, including another recent AJOG article, that came out more recently, citing that planned home births, with certified⁷ nurse-midwives, outcomes are just as safe as midwifery deliveries in the hospital.”

Writer Jennifer Block agrees.  She says women are choosing home birth for the baby’s health as well their own.

“Because if the mother has a spontaneous vaginal birth, that’s absolutely the best-case scenario⁸ for a baby.  We know babies benefit from vaginal birth: their lungs, their respiratory health, their gut⁹ health: they are colonized¹⁰ with good bacteria.”

And Ms. Block notes that the experience is very different in Western Europe and some other countries.  In those areas, midwives care for healthy pregnant women and send them to doctors only if there are problems or known risks.

Broadway Show Honors Music of the Cotton Club

The Cotton Club in New York City helped bring fame to many African-American performers during the early 1920s to the 1940s.  Now, a new musical play celebrates some of the greatest jazz musicians who played there.  Bob Doughty¹¹ has more on the show “After Midnight.”

Two men partnered to create “After Midnight.”  Wynton Marsalis is the artistic¹² director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.  His friend Jack Viertel is the director of a company that brings old musicals back to life in new shows.  Their shared love of the music of this time gave birth to “After Midnight.”

The Cotton Club was in the Harlem neighborhood of the city. David Levering Lewis is a history professor at New York University and writer of the book “When Harlem Was In Vogue¹³.”  He says “After Midnight” shows what one night at the famous nightclub was really like.

"I thought it captured the flavor of what would have been one night - the best ever - at the Cotton Club."

Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Bessie Smith are just some of the musicians re-created in “After Midnight.”  Mr. Viertel and Mr. Marsalis used old sound recordings¹⁴ from the Cotton Club to re-create what it was really like.

"Hello Everybody!  Welcome to our famous Cotton Club.  It’s great to see so many friends here tonight, enjoying themselves in spite of the cover charge.  If you can spare a minute from your merry making, I’d like to have the pleasure of introducing the greatest living master of jungle music, the rip-roaring harmony hound, none other than Duke Ellington!"

But there is an ugly side to the history.  The Cotton Club was located in the center of the African-American neighborhood of Harlem. The club used black performers.  But the club only permitted white people to attend the shows.

Mr. Lewis describes how even the celebrated¹⁵ composer W.C. Handy was not permitted to enter.  

"As everyone knows, it was infamously¹⁶ racially-exclusive.  W.C. Handy wished to go one evening to The Cotton Club and he was turned away.  And he could hear his music being performed!"

Cotton Club shows often presented African-Americans in insulting ways.  But this is not explored in “After Midnight.”  Mr. Viertel says the creators wanted to free the music from its past.   

 

I’m June Simms. Our program was Anna Matteo and John Abbott. Caty Weaver was the producer

1 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

2 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。

3 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

6 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

7 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

8 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

9 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

10 colonized   

开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The area was colonized by the Vikings. 这一地区曾沦为维京人的殖民地。
• The British and French colonized the Americas. 英国人和法国人共同在美洲建立殖民地。

11 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

12 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

13 Vogue   

n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的

参考例句：

• Flowery carpets became the vogue.花卉地毯变成了时髦货。
• Short hair came back into vogue about ten years ago.大约十年前短发又开始流行起来了。

14 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

15 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

16 infamously   

不名誉地

参考例句：

• They will not have much cause of triumph when they see how infamously I act. 当他们看到我演得那么糟糕时，他们就不会有多少理由感到胜利了。