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Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950
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Based on personal accounts by birthing women and their medical attendants, Brought to Bed reveals how childbirth has changed from colonial times to the present.
Judith Walzer Leavitt's study focuses on the traditional woman-centered home-birthing practices, their replacement by male doctors, and the movement from the home to the hospital. She explains that childbearing women and their physicians gradually changed birth places because they believed the increased medicalization would make giving birth safer and more comfortable. Ironically, because of infection, infant and maternal mortality did not immediately decline. She concludes that birthing women held considerable power in determining labor and delivery events as long as childbirth remained in the home. The move to the hospital in the twentieth century gave the medical profession the upper hand. Leavitt also discusses recent events in American obstetrics that illustrate how women have attempted to retrieve some of the traditional women--and family--centered aspects of childbirth.
18/03/2007
While the author makes good use of quotations and historical information, so much of each chapter is repeated that I would liken it to reading while banging ones head against a wall. If the intent of the author was that each chapter could stand alone, then it can be considered a resounding success. However, if the author meant it to be read as a full book, then barring a reader with horrible short-term memory, each chapter could have been condensed to roughly 8 pages.
I can see how this book is an invaluable resource to those who need citations for a paper/thesis concerning childbirth. The author has exhaustively researched historical records and has faithfully cited them, but to those wishing to read an interesting analysis of the historical change in American childbirth - beware. My suggestion is to read the introduction, the last chapter, the epilogue and any passages that are merely direct quotations. It does not speak very highly of the author that the most interesting parts of the book were in fact copied from the writings of others.
18/03/2006
Thank goodness for today's painkillers!!! This book was well written, thoroughly researched, with plenty of data, graphs, pictures, and personal accounts going back to the 1700s. A fascinating book, both just to read and for research. It was very helpful with my thesis, and for an interesting read, if you are interested in history, this is a great choice. Kudos to the author for a well-done book!
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