[Discussion] GIVING BIRTH: NEW MEANINGS, NEW S TATISTICS WAR - CALL FOR PAPERS AND INVIT ATION FOR PARTICIPATION”

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

GIVING BIRTH: NEW MEANINGS, NEW STATISTICS WAR - CALL FOR PAPERS AND 
INVITATION FOR PARTICIPATION”
New technologies in reproductive health along with emerging social 
practices have altered the experience of pregnancy and child birth for 
many women. More than ever, giving birth is an event of hospitals and 
technologies. What are the reasons for, and consequences of, high 
incidence of cesareans? Can we say that our era is experiencing radical 
changes in the meaning of “motherhood” and parenting? What are gender 
and other issues related to ultrasound and the fetus? Male and female 
roles in parenting. Is the female body the arena of political debate? 
What are the current cross cultural issues related to abortion, religion 
and the state? Artificial insemination, hirer wombs and buying sperm. As 
the birth rate has rapidly declined in most parts of the world, what 
substitutes are there for the “birth” experience? Issues related to 
child adoption. Giving birth under war and famine conditions. This 
session proposes to lay on the table the extraordinary changes 
experienced in the arena of human birth and notions of parenting from 
both a quantitative and qualitative perspective. Social consequences of 
the collapse of buildings and other man-made accidents will also be 
examined. Please find updated information as regards the meeting at the 
IFSSH website http://www.ifssh.net.
The International Forum for Social Sciences and Health (IFSSH) welcomes 
applications from scholars, administrators, researchers, interested 
parties, international agencies, national and international research 
institutions and students for participation in the 2005 World Congress 
“HEALTH CHALLENGES OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM”. The 2005 World Congress 
aims to realize a universal platform for reflections and forward-looking 
discussions in all important areas that fall under the health social 
science agenda. The world congress will host workshop sessions under the 
following themes: Accidents and disabilities; Adolescent health; 
Bioethics; Bioterror and weapons of mass destruction; Child health, 
development and child rights; Health consequences of war; Communicating 
health knowledge and behavior; Controversies of diet and nutrition; 
Developing economies, migration and emerging health issues; Ecohealth: 
climate change, health consequences of environmental deterioration and 
environmental policies; Ethnobotany and healing; Giving birth: new 
meanings, new statistics; Health and disease in world myths, scripts and 
literature; Health clubs and the new aesthetics of health; Health 
equity; Health social science research methodology; Health sector reform 
and health insurance; Health, medicine and colonialism; Human rights, 
HIV/AIDS and the new epidemics; Infectious diseases; Issues in rural 
health and disease; Life styles; Living with pain; Local traditions of 
healing and shamans; New challenges: smoking, addictions and eating 
disorders; Politics of pharmacueticals; Redefining old age; Reproductive 
health; Social history of health and disease; Social science education 
for health sciences; Sociology of dental health; Suicides and cross 
cultural issues in mental health; The economics of well being; The 
future of hospitals and patient care; The psychology of violence; 
Violence as a public health issue; and Social aspects and prevention of 
world blindness. Please find updated information as regards the meeting 
at the IFSSH website http://www.ifssh.net. We invite you to join this 
interdisciplinary gathering of the experiences and perspectives of 
social scientists and health specialists for a crucial assessment of the 
human condition at the onset of the new millennium.
Prof. Dr. Akile Gürsoy
IFSSH Secretary General
Head, Department of Anthropology
Yeditepe University
Congress Correspondence:
2005 IFSSH Congress Center
Department of Anthropology
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Yeditepe University
Kay?s,dag(?,34755 Istanbul TÜRKI.YE
Tel: (+ 90) 216-578 07 27)
Fax: (+ 90) 216-578 08 99)
E-mail: ifssh.2005@yeditepe.edu.tr
ifssh@ifssh.net
http://www.ifssh.net