Full name: Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care

Author: Jennifer Block Year: 2007 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Parenting, Non Fiction, Health, Feminism Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780738210735 9780738211664 0738210730 0738211664

In the United States, more than half the women who give birth are given drugs to induce or speed up labor; for nearly a third of mothers, childbirth is major surgery - the cesarean section. For women who want an alternative, choice is often unavailable: Midwives are sometimes inaccessible; in eleven states they are illegal. In one of those states, even birthing centers are outlawed.When did birth become an emergency instead of an emergence? Since when is normal, physiological birth a crime? A groundbreaking journalistic narrative, Pushed presents the complete picture of maternity care in America. Crisscrossing the country to report what women really experience during childbirth, Jennifer Block witnessed several births - from a planned cesarean to an underground home birth. Against this backdrop, Block investigates whether routine C-sections, inductions, and epidurals equal medical progress. She examines childbirth as a reproductive rights issue: Do women have the right to an optimal birth experience? If so, is that right being upheld? Block's research and experience reveal in vivid detail that while emergency obstetric care is essential, there is compelling evidence that we are overusing medical technology at the expense of maternal and infant health: Either women's bodies are failing, or the system is failing women. Similar books: Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer Born in the USA by Marsden Wagner The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin Gentle Birth Choices by Barbara Harper Homebirth by Sheila Kitzinger Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International Caring for Your Baby and Young Child by Steven P. Shelov Adventures in Tandem Nursing by Hilary Flower Breastfeeding Made Simple by Nancy Mohrbacher Mothering Your Nursing Toddler by Norma J. Bumgarner The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennetts Doing Harm by Maya Dusenbery Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein Poser by Claire Dederer Fat Shame by Amy Erdman Farrell Packaging Girlhood by Sharon Lamb Fat Is A Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach