Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are BornA journalist " explores the way childbirth has changed, from pre-history to the present" in this "fascinating, funny and occasionally shocking" historical survey ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review). From midwives to the epidural and beyond, mother and former Boston Globe editor Tina Cassidy presents an intelligent, enlightening, and impeccably researched cultural history of how we handle the process of childbirth. Why is it that every culture and generation seems to have its own ideas about the best way to give birth? Touching on peculiar practices from across the globe as well as the very different experiences of mothers in her own family, Cassidy explores the physical, anthropological, political, and religious factors that have and will continue to influence how women bring new life into the world. " Birth is a power-packed book. . . . A lively, engaging, and often witty read, a quirky, eye-opening account of one of life's most elemental experiences." — The Boston Globe "Well-researched and engaging . . . Birth is a clever, almost irreverent look at an enduring everyday miracle." —Entertainment Weekly "Wonderful. Packed full of information, a brilliant mixture of ancient wisdom and modern science." —Kate Mosse, author of the New York Times bestseller, Labyrinth |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 27 | |
Three The Hut the Home and the Hospital | 50 |
Four Pain Relief | 77 |
Five The Cesarean Section | 103 |
Six The Dawn of Doctors | 131 |
Seven Tools and Fads | 161 |
Eight A Fathers Place | 198 |
Nine The Postpartum Period | 215 |
In the End | 245 |
Appendix | 259 |
| 285 | |
| 301 | |
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Common terms and phrases
allowed American anesthesia attended baby baby’s became began believed belly birth canal birth centers blood born breast-feeding breathing breech C-section called cause century cervix Chamberlen Channing childbirth chloroform contractions cord Courtesy craniotomy cultures delivered delivery room Despite Dick-Read dilation doctors doula drugs early emergency enema epidural episiotomy father feel fetal fetus forceps gave give birth head hemorrhage home births hospital human husband Ibid infant infection Karmel Klaus labor and delivery Lamaze later Leboyer legs live lying-in maternal deaths maternal mortality method midwifery midwives milk mother and child Mütter Museum newborns obstetrical obstetricians Odent operation pain relief patients pelvis percent physicians placenta postpartum postpartum depression practice pregnant women pubic pull push Simpson staff surgeon surgery thousand tion told Trevathan Twilight Sleep ultrasound uterus vaginal birth VBAC waterbirth Wertz and Wertz wet nurse wife wives woman wrote York