Kindergarten application: “Type of birth: Vaginal__ Cesarean__.”

[marylander1940]

The mother of an incoming kindergartner in Connecticut has persuaded officials to revise their school forms after speaking out about a question that she says got too personal. The inquiry: “Type of birth: Vaginal__ Cesarean__.”

 

Cara Paiuk was at an introductory event for her son’s upcoming kindergarten class at Aiken Elementary School in West Hartford when she and her husband were handed a packet of forms to fill out. As her husband began to answer questions, Paiuk says she noticed one particularly alarming request for information. The question, in a section about “birth history,” asked whether her son was delivered vaginally or via C-section. “I ripped it out of his hands and said, ‘You can’t answer that, it’s none of their business,’” Paiuk tells Yahoo Parenting. “This is kindergarten, and they want to know about my vagina! I don’t understand — there’s no correlation between the two for me.”

 

http://news.yahoo.com/the-outrageous-kindergarten-application-question-122950416687.html

[+ WmClarke]

Totally inappropriate to ask that question.

[Kuriousity]

Unless one happens to be in a cootch, what goes on there is no one's business........

[Juan Vancouver]

People are fucking crazy! This puritanism, sanctioned by the culture and the media is getting the best out of your country.

 

It IS a relevant question for a school. There are a host of well documented differences between c=section babies and vaginally delivered babies. I think it is great for a school to want to have as much medical information about a child as possible.

 

If you don't want people to think you have a vagina, do not have a man stick his penis in it and make a baby.

 

It's your body, people, for Christ's sakes!

[+ nycman]

I'm 50/50 on this one.

 

I'd be 100% in Juan's court if I could think on one reason the school needs

to know if a five year old was a vaginal vs cesarean birth. Unfortunately, I can't....

Even more unfortunately, I spent 20 minutes wracking my brain trying to think of a reason.

(I seriously need to get a hobby!)

 

I agree the mother is way over defensive. It's not liked they asked

"Did you get knocked up AFTER the blow Job but BEFORE anal?"

They just asked the kids birth history....it's clearly a part of his medical history.

[AndreFuture]

I wouldn't be surprised if this woman and her husband are like many other Americans who are totally fine with mass NSA surveillance to stop "terrorism", because they're not criminals and they have nothing to hide.

[AndreFuture]

I'd be 100% in Juan's court if I could think on one reason the school needs

to know if a five year old was a vaginal vs cesarean birth. Unfortunately, I can't....

Even more unfortunately, I spent 20 minutes wracking my brain trying to think of a reason.

 

I also can't think of a reason, but doesn't mean there isn't one. I think the school would have done better if it gave a simple explanation as to why the question is relevant. People are actually quite amenable to divulging tons of super personal info about themselves if you can convince them it's in their best interest.

[marylander1940]

I wouldn't be surprised if this woman and her husband are like many other Americans who are totally fine with mass NSA surveillance to stop "terrorism", because they're not criminals and they have nothing to hide.

 

Yes, but not in my neighborhood... or in this case, I'm not Muslim, don't spy on me.

 

I also can't think of a reason, but doesn't mean there isn't one. I think the school would have done better if it gave a simple explanation as to why the question is relevant. People are actually quite amenable to divulging tons of super personal info about themselves if you can convince them it's in their best interest.

 

You betcha, but I wouldn't be surprised if you can just look up her facebook page and find that out, LOL

 

 

People are fucking crazy! This puritanism, sanctioned by the culture and the media is getting the best out of your country.

 

It IS a relevant question for a school. There are a host of well documented differences between c=section babies and vaginally delivered babies. I think it is great for a school to want to have as much medical information about a child as possible.

 

If you don't want people to think you have a vagina, do not have a man stick his penis in it and make a baby.

 

It's your body, people, for Christ's sakes!

 

I understand your point of view, maybe the woman could just write "no answer" or "not of your damn f... business".

I'm 50/50 on this subject too.

[+ FreshFluff]

As long as we're already having an explicit conversation here, there's some missing context. Since the natural birth movement began a few decades ago, some women have begun to consider themselves failures if they had an epidural during birth, let alone a c-section.

 

There are a host of well documented differences between c=section babies and vaginally delivered babies.

 

Would this information be relevant in an emergency? Is one group considered smarter than the other? I truly don't know, but as someone else said, the school should specify why it needs the info.

[Kuriousity]

The school should have just asked "Was your child delivered by c-section?" and then explain why they were asking. If there was a valid medical reason, then the question was valid....and only an OB-GYN could tell if there is a medical need to ask the question.....

[bigvalboy]

As long as we're already having an explicit conversation here, there's some missing context. Since the natural birth movement began a few decades ago, some women consider themselves failures if they have an epidural during birth, let alone a c-section.

 

 

 

Would this information be relevant in an emergency? Is one group considered smarter than the other? I truly don't know, but as someone else said, the school should specify why it needs the info.

 

Most of their explanation was weak at best.

 

From the article:

 

"A few days later, Paiuk, who wrote about the incident in a recent New York Times essay, called the school district and was told by a nurse that if there were any birth traumas — like the umbilical cord being wrapped around a child’s neck or an emergency C-section — they needed to know. That way, if the child presented with any issues at school, teachers or administrators could refer to the form. “I thought it was BS,” Paiuk says. “Yes, birth trauma can result in developmental delays or disability, but that can happen through vaginal birth or a C-section. And if there are delays or disabilities, shouldn’t that be diagnosed by a doctor, not an administrator

[rvwnsd]

Sounds to me like a combination of a school administrator not thinking when developing the form and a parent who overreacted. The school district stated they will review the forms, so I don't see why she decided to write an essay about it. None of us would have given her vagina a second thought had she not written that essay. Now it is trending on Yahoo. Nice work.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

"A few days later, Paiuk, who wrote about the incident in a recent New York Times essay, called the school district and was told by a nurse that if there were any birth traumas — like the umbilical cord being wrapped around a child’s neck or an emergency C-section — they needed to know. That way, if the child presented with any issues at school, teachers or administrators could refer to the form. “I thought it was BS,” Paiuk says. “Yes, birth trauma can result in developmental delays or disability, but that can happen through vaginal birth or a C-section. And if there are delays or disabilities, shouldn’t that be diagnosed by a doctor, not an administrator

 

If that was the intent of the question, it should have been, "Were there any birth traumas?" But even if there was a birth trauma, so what? The nurse's reply was that the question was only referred to after the fact and not as a way to assist with early detection of a problem.

 

If there were to be issues at school and the form was referred to, how would they handle the situation any differently than if other situations arose at school? Address the situation with the parents and suggest reviewing it with the child's pediatrician.

 

I'm siding with the mother on this one.

[Guest]

It IS a relevant question for a school. There are a host of well documented differences between c=section babies and vaginally delivered babies. I think it is great for a school to want to have as much medical information about a child as possible.

 

?? Would you then mind providing at least two references (by that I mean scientific studies, not some crackpot website) to these "well-documented" differences? Differences which are relevant to schooling? In California, all public school children need to have forms completed by their physician (or NP or PA-C), in which said physician/health care provider checks either: (1) No Health Care issues relevant to schooling, or (2) The following health care issues are relevant to schooling:. As far as I know, there isn't a single difference relevant to schooling between a child born vaginally versus C-section, let alone "a host" of differences.

[+ WilliamM]

The question does not bother me. In fact, I wish my parents were still alive because they never talked about my birth. Wish I could ask them. I have no idea whether my mom had a c-section or not.

 

My dad was in military stationed in Austin, TX. I had a twin brother who died shortly after birth. I know that we were born premature only because my parents talked about visiting me in the hospital for a long while after birth. My aunt told me my twin brother's lungs did not open properly. I just recently discovered the name of the cemetary where he is buried in Austin.

 

(I grew up far away in Massachusetts).

 

I am for a child having as much information as possible, including whether or not he/she was born through c-section.

 

The mother is not the only person involved in the birth.

[Epigonos]

Tempest in a teapot!!!!! Stupid question on the part of the school. Over reaction on the part of the parent. All she had to do was draw a line through the question and ignore it or write N/A as her response.