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Towards Common Visions. The Civil Public in the Work of Jürgen Habermas
Horáčková, Martina ; Skovajsa, Marek (advisor) ; Muhič Dizdarevič, Selma (referee)
Public power in democratic society emanates from the citizens and is, in its turn, responsible to them. The citizens are entitled to observe, scrutinize and influence it. The public consists of private individuals actively engaged in public affairs and coordinating this activity with others. The present essay is concerned with Jürgen Habermasʼ concepts of the public in his The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, The Theory of Communicative Action, and Between Facts and Norms. At first, these works are interpreted and critically evaluated here. Then, the issue of the public is developed with special emphasis on the concept as it is elaborated in Between Facts and Norms. This essay tries to characterize the civil public and pursues the question how it is positioned in the larger frame of the civil society. The public is studied from the point of view of its influence in society. Habermas ascribes a substantial role to the public, for, according to his idea of the deliberative democracy, the public takes a part in the democratic processes of lawmaking and that by means of a dialogue with the public power. In this perspective, the public is conceived of as communicative power. This dissertation concentrates on the origins and forming of the communicative power and the ensuing process of its...
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Cooperation of doulas and midwives during childbirth.
HORÁČKOVÁ, Martina
The bachelor thesis deals with the cooperation of doulas and midwives during childbirth. Childbirth is an emotionally challenging situation and for primiparas it is completely new and unknown. This may cause fear, stress, tension and feelings of discontent in a woman. The people who take care of a mother during childbirth make an effort to limit those negative feelings to a minimum or obviate them. Nowadays, a woman in labour is taken care of by physicians and midwives. However, we can also meet a dula who accompanies a woman to give birth and she cares for her in the mental and physical respect. The aim of all the people involved should be a mutual, respect-based cooperation. Thoughtfulness, understanding, efforts to meet the mother´s wishes, positive attitude and creating mutual trust is a prerequisite for a good cooperation between a woman and a midwife. Likewise, the cooperation of doulas and midwives is a prerequisite for a calm course of giving birth. In the thesis, two goals and four research questions were set. The theoretical part is working out the question who a doula is and it talks about their training, professional competencies, it deals with services that a doula provides and describes help of a doula during childbirth. It also informs about organisations which provide education for a doula in the Czech Republic. It also focuses on the work and competencies of midwives, talks about their education, describes the role of midwives in antenatal preparation, summarizes the care for women during childbirth and the postpartum period. The qualitative form of research was chosen for the research survey. Data collection was performed using a semi-structured interview. There were two files chosen for the research. The first group consisted of 9 midwives aged from 31 to 60 years old, who work in a delivery room and have different lengths of practice. The other group consisted of 6 doulas aged from 40 to 47 years old with experience in accompanying women to give birth. Based on the interviews three main categories and semantic subcategories were identified. The first category called "PA Knowledge about a doula" is elaborated into two subcategories dealing with the reason for presence of doulas in a delivery room and knowledge of PA about education and competencies of doulas. In the second category called "Views on doulas", we set two subcategories and found opinions of midwives on a birth plan and on a cooperation with doulas. In the third category called "Activities of doulas", we formed five sub-categories. This category further elaborates on doulas´ job description, on the decision why the respondents became doulas, on a doula training and skills, focusing on cooperation of a doula with a woman and talking about cooperation of doulas with midwives. The survey showed that the majority of midwives gladly accept the doulas´ presence in a delivery room as they can be really helpful with the care of a mother. Midwives especially welcome the presence of a doula in a delivery room when taking care of more than one mother at a time. However, it is a medical escort of a woman, so it is expected by midwives that the proposed method of childbirth will be respected, the competence of health professionals will not be interfered and mothers will not be influenced by a doula. Work of a midwife and a doula during childbirth is entirely different, so there should be no rivarly. They should complement each other. Under such circumstances of mutual respect, the cooperation is successful. In the research we also found that midwives´ awareness of doula´s education is not great and all the knowledge is limited only to the Internet resources. Eight midwives have read about the competencies of a doula enshrined in the Ethical Code. The thesis results could serve as a source of information for midwives working in a delivery room, especially for the newly hired ones but also for doulas accompanying women to give birth.
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