Certeau's Ideas

Michael de Certeau's s key concepts from The Practice of Everyday Life can be applied to the text we read in class. His first key concept-production and reproduction/consumption can be applied to the article because there is a consumer and a producer and they are both trying to defend their points in a rationalized way. The consumer would be the lady having the baby because she is paying for the services of the doctors and hospital and the producer is the doctors because they are the ones making the rules and supplying the services to the woman. The hospital will not allow the woman to have her baby naturally because of the health risks involved. The woman argues that she knows the health risks and there are also health risks involved with having a c-section. Both parties have legit reasons for their opinions and way of thinking, but ultimately the hospital's decision is final and the woman decides not to have the baby in that hospital but will travel three hours to another one. The second concept- poaching can also be seen in the article because the woman wants to have her baby naturally and fights to have the baby naturally because that was the way she was able to have her last child. She poaches the hospital's policies and the choices she has to make. Tactics and strategies, the third key concept can also be applied because the woman uses the strategy of a woman's choice to decide while using different tactics to support her strategy. The woman knows the health risks but still wants to have her baby naturally. She uses the tactics of talking to the CEO of the hospital and by giving different examples of different situations when women get to make different decisions about their pregnancies.