VOA慢速英語:在美國越來越流行在自己家迎接新生兒而不是去醫(yī)院

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Welcome to American Mosaic from VOA LearningEnglish.

I’m June Simms.

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

We also hear some great jazz from the past brought tonew 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 arrivethrough a surgical operation called a Caesarean section. However, a growingnumber of parents-to be are choosing a different way. Steve Ember reports.

Emilie Jacobs and her husband, Rowan Finnegan, are preparing to welcometheir second child. The baby will be born at their home --- just like their firstchild, 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 techmachinery 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 inadministering birth care more than the needs of the women they serve.

Emilie Jacobs holds her newborn after giving birth to her first baby at home. (Photo: Emilie Jacobs)

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

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

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

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

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

“We here on our labor and delivery unit fight for seconds when an unexpectedfetal distress occurs, we do drills, so that we plan an emergency Caesareanand fight for seconds. If someone is as much as one block away from thishospital, it’s too far.”

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

“He used a lot of flawed data and drew a lot of conclusions that areinconsistent with all of the other research that’s out there currently, includinganother recent AJOG article, that came out more recently, citing that plannedhome births, with certified nurse-midwives, outcomes are just as safe asmidwifery 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 thebest-case scenario for a baby. We know babies benefit from vaginal birth:their lungs, their respiratory health, their gut health: they are colonized withgood bacteria.”

And Ms. Block notes that the experience is very different in Western Europeand some other countries. In those areas, midwives care for healthy pregnantwomen 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 newmusical play celebrates some of the greatest jazz musicians who playedthere. Bob Doughty has more on the show “After Midnight.”

Two men partnered to create “After Midnight.” Wynton Marsalis is the artisticdirector 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 LeveringLewis is a history professor at New York University and writer of the book“When Harlem Was In Vogue.” He says “After Midnight” shows what onenight at the famous nightclub was really like.

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

Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Bessie Smith are just some of themusicians re-created in “After Midnight.” Mr. Viertel and Mr. Marsalis used oldsound recordings 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 somany friends here tonight, enjoying themselves in spite of the cover charge. Ifyou can spare a minute from your merry making, I’d like to have the pleasureof introducing the greatest living master of jungle music, the rip-roaringharmony hound, none other than Duke Ellington!"

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

Mr. Lewis describes how even the celebrated composer W.C. Handy was notpermitted to enter.

"As everyone knows, it was infamously racially-exclusive. W.C. Handywished 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 tofree the music from its past.

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

Do you have a question about American life, people or places? Send an e-mailto [email protected]. We might answer your question in a futureshow. You can also visit our website at learningenglish.voanews.com to findtranscripts and audio of our shows.

Join us again next week for American Mosaic from VOA Learning English.