discourse analysis write up #1-liz white

Elizabeth White
Instructor: Richard Samuelson
English 102
22 February 2001

Discourse Analysis Write-up

Throughout the semester I have been taking all of my reflections and analysis’s into my own hands to find a deeper meaning in these findings. What I found is there are some things worth doing because it is the right thing to do. My first reaction towards my English 102 class was confusion; I was confused as to what service learning had to do with writing in college. Now, being further into the course, I realize that there are valuable lessons that I have learned. Being in college mean being an adult; taking matters into your own hands and being a part of the community. But, what does it mean to be a part of the community, what would a community expect from me? These are questions I never would have thought to ask myself before this class and the answers I’m coming up with are even more surprising. To play my part in my community I don’t have to save a baby from a fire, although I would; or anonymously give a million dollars to a stranger, in which case I highly doubt I ever could. The point is, I’m doing something. Changing the world isn’t about how “smart” you are, it’s about the wisdom you gain from your experiences. I’m proud to say that I feel as though I am well on my way to having many new experiences and sharing them. So, by taking everything that I have learned through my Baby Steps program I have also come up with some questions.
While speaking with Diane, my Baby Steps advisor, she explained that our goal is to be someone that cares. When mothers of the program join in Baby Steps daily meetings it’s my job to check their points list. This points list allows them to be rewarded by redeeming their points for things for their children. They collect these points by doing something that is overall beneficial and healthy to themselves or their babies. So, for example bringing a support system with you gets you points, going to a doctor’s appointment; but the point that struck me as a surprise was not being involved in substance abuse. It hadn’t occurred to me before then that some of these women have struggled or are still with abusing substances such as drugs or alcohol. This is where I got my question. What kind of physiological damage can occur to a child, yet to be born, with a parent involved in substance abuse? To narrow it down a bit more I suppose I should’ve mentioned looking more so at a mother abusing substances as opposed to the father because in most cases there isn’t typically harm to the fetus unless the mother is involved.
To find out more about this problem I decided to start with looking more specifically at an effect of prenatal substance abuse that I was familiar with, but didn’t know much about, fetal alcohol syndrome. I found a fairly recent video online that had snippets of legitimate doctors from a few universities through the nation, and even a couple of adoptive parents that agreed to share their stories, give the facts and spread the word. This is the source I decided to go with. In a very broad sense; the facts are FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) can occur at anytime of the pregnancy and can be more or less severe dependent upon the mother’s use of alcohol. In latent terms these doctors explained that this syndrome is something that this child lives with forever and cannot be treated. There are many brain abnormalities and even anomalies in physical appearance. FAS is especially hard as the children affected grow to be adults. They have many behavioral problems because they struggle particularly with problem solving skills and aren’t able to understand cause and effect relationships and long-term consequences. This means that a task such as going into a store with $20.00 and knowing what we can and cannot purchase isn’t such a simple task for someone with FAS.
After getting the facts I asked myself if they were legit. In almost every sense of the word, yes, the information I was receiving was legitimate research. However, there is bias in everything, especially in the personal interviews of the adoptive parents. Obviously drinking while you’re pregnant is something that many people frown upon, but I can’t help but think about that news outbreak I heard about maybe last year; about how it can actually be good for you to drink small doses of wine throughout your pregnancy, some doctors even recommend it. So, although a mass majority of people would agree that it is inappropriate to consume any alcohol during pregnancy, there are more and more people gaining a different approach on the matter. Another bias is adoptive mothers. I too would be worried, scared for the child and probably a little angry with the biological parents. But maybe to the biological mother, she did nothing wrong. There may be many women that feel that way. There are always to sides to a story, there are always morals and ethics that contradict a way a person handles or feels about a situation which is why there is always bias. I would like to learn what other people think about drinking while pregnant. On one side of the spectrum we have the doctors and mothers who, without a doubt, believe that by drinking while pregnant the child will very likely be affected by FAS and in their eyes that sacrifice isn’t worth it. But are there people that don’t think it’s that big of a deal?