Introduction
Margaret Louise Higgins was born on September 14, 1879 in Corning, New York She was the sixth of the eleven children. She believed her mothers death was premature due to the many children she had which she had no control over.She attended Claverack College and Hudson River Institute in 1896 .She began the nursing program at White Plains Hospital in 1900. She started to get involved in issues of birth control by the heavy impact her mothers death had on her. She married William Sanger and had three kids.. She was a member of the Women’s Committee of the NY Socialist Party. She was very active in the community. She was a highly influential person known for starting the birth control movement and in other aspects of a woman’s health. I have chosen her for her compassion and sincerity to her work as a nurse.
Role of nursing and her professionalism
Margaret Sanger’s working career as a nurse was focused on sex education and women’s health. She wrote many papers and articles to educate people all around. For example, in 1912 she wrote a column on sex education for the New York Call entitled “What Every Girl Should Know.” At that time, this kind of information was not to be spoken about in the open and needed to be censored. She felt it was her right to tell the world of increasing problems with childbirth. She worked frequently on one side of New York where many of the population was poor and the women suffered the pain of frequent childbirth, miscarriage and abortion. She started working for the idea that women need to control their lives more from unwanted pregnancies (birth control 2006).
The first birth control clinic opened in the U.S. by Sanger on October 16, 1916 in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York as noted in article (Malveaux 2001). Her sister Ethel Byrne, a nurse herself, and Fania Mindell, an interpreter from Chicago, rented a small place and handed out flyers of the stating about the clinic in few different languages. They sold the pamphlet that Sanger had written called “ What Every Girl Should Know“, which was about the female reproductive system, and instructions on the use of various contraceptives. A few times Sanger was arrested was aiding in women for such causes. (NYU 1985)
Sanger (1924) wrote, “Everywhere we look, we see poverty and large families going hand in hand. We see hordes of children whose parents cannot feed, clothe, or educate even one half of the number born to them. We see sick, harassed, broken mothers whose health and nerves cannot bear the strain of further child-bearing. We see fathers growing despondent and desperate, because their labor cannot bring the necessary wage to keep their growing families. We see that those parents who are least fit to reproduce the race are having the largest number of children; while people of wealth, leisure, and education are having small families. “
She became president of the Birth Control International Information Center. In 1937, she became the chairperson of the Birth Control Council of America. Two of her publications, The Birth Control Review and The Birth Control News were available for the world to read. Her understanding to the human physiology was advanced for her time and her thoughts on the psychology of human sexuality place her in the pre-Freudian 19th century. Birth control, was a way of women and men to enjoy sex without the unwanted side effects.(Gray 1979)
Sanger remains a controversial figure. She is credited as a leader of the modern birth control movement, and remains a figure for the American reproductive rights movements. She believed in the social philosophy of eugenics. Many people disagree with the principles of abortion and eugenics (Richmond). She had traveled and researched various ways of birth control in many different countries.
“While in Europe for a year to avoid severe criminal penalties, partly due to her political radicalism, partly for violating postal obscenity laws, she learned more about contraception, the politics of sexuality and the commonality of women’s experience. Her case was dismissed after her return to the States. Sanger continued to push legal and social boundaries by initiating sex counseling, founding the American Birth Control League (which became, in 1942, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America) and organizing the first international population conference. Eventually her work would extend as far as Japan and India, where organizations she helped start still flourish” as written in article by Gloria (1998).
In the early 1960s, Sanger promoted the use of the newly available birth control pill. She toured Europe, Africa, and Asia, lecturing and helping to establish clinics.
“Female oral contraceptives, colloquially known as the Pill, are the most common form of pharmaceutical contraception. They are used to prevent pregnancy. The pill is also used to control symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrom (PCOS) .Many doctors prescribe the Pill to women who complain of dysfunctional uterine bleeding (Oral Contraceptives 2006).”The contraceptives consist of a pill that women take daily and which contains doses of synthetic hormones.
Sanger was an educator and a nurse. She did get arrested many times for educating people but never did anything violent. Her professionalism shows through her various knowledge she acquired studying in different countries. She never gave up for her beliefs and motivated many others. It was not merely for the fact she wanted women to have control on the babies they born into this world, but for a woman to have a choice how she reproduces. The movement that Sanger had started was one of the many large steps in giving women the freedom they have today ( Sanger 1992).There were about 2.3 million persons employed as Registered Nurses in the U.S. in 2004 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As a nurse, she did provide direct care and make decisions regarding plans of care for individuals and groups of healthy, ill and injured women. She was as professional as many nurses are today. She brought a new way of life for professionals to work. As a nurse of today, research shows that registered nurses are the first line defense for hospitalized patients against death from infections, complications, and disabilities.
These nurses work as educators, managers, executives, and community members. Nurses a play the largest role in health care these years. In hospitals, nurses perform roles such as writing policies, responding to emergencies, managing professional,and technical staff.
Sanger, was one of the many influential people in health care. Now because of her, and others, health care has highly developed. Birth controls, contraceptives, and other medicines are made for the better of women. They effects of these medicines are being improved and the side effects lessened. The many pains women suffered are less in this new century (Riddle 1999). Learning about what she has done, can motivate a nurse or any educator to do their jobs more efficiently and passionately. A nurse can identify the patients problems, needs which can be emotional or spiritual.
Conclusion
To conclude, Margaret Sanger was a nurse who was highly motivated in her profession.
Influenced by the unfortunate death of her mother after 18 births in which 11 were successful, Sanger felt that her mother died a premature death because of the unawareness of contraceptives which she emphasized in her book (Sanger 1938). She became a nurse and helped many women gain knowledge about reproductive systems, and their sexual health. Not only did she help in America but many other countries. She gained knowledge by traveling and became one of the many influential people who added to health care. Many nurses can learn from her passion , determination, and will be motivated to help their patients as much as possible.
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