Laboring On: Birth in Transition in the United States

by Wendy Simonds, Barbara Katz Rothman, Bari Meltzer Norman

Facing the polar forces of an epidemic of Cesarean sections and epidurals and home-like labor rooms, American birth is in transition. Caught between the most extreme medicalization ― best seen in a Cesarean section rate of nearly 30 percent ― and a rhetoric of women’s "choices" and "the natural," women and their midwives, doulas, obstetricians, and nurses labor on. Laboring On offers the voices of all of these practitioners, all women trying to help women, as they struggle with this increasingly split vision of birth. Updating Barbara Katz Rothman's now-classic In Labor , the first feminist sociological analysis of birth in the United States, Laboring On gives a comprehensive picture of the ever-changing American birth practices and often conflicting visions of birth practitioners. The authors deftly weave compelling accounts of birth work, by midwives, doulas, obstetricians, and nurses, into the larger sociohistorical context of health care practices and activism and offer provocative arguments about the current state of affairs and the future of birth in America.

Genres: Parenting

392 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Caralyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential read in understanding medicalization of birth. Will radically change your view of midwifery and birth in the United States.

[Lisa Jahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dramatic advances in medical technology in the eighteenth century gave way to a medical birthing model that cultivated the image of the female as a mechanical birthing vessel. According to Simonds, terms such as “pain, abnormal, high-risk, and disease” utilized by obstetrics to describe pregnancy led to the medical notion of pregnancy as pathological, a condition of illness. This new definition allowed doctors to justify medical interventions and take control of the management of pregnancy. This paved the way for male physicians to become the sole proprietors of medical knowledge while creating an image of midwifery as antiquated. This is a great book and needs to be read.

[Roxy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to the differences between the medical model and the midwifery model of birth, but the first couple of chapters are very repetitive of Rothman's previous books, and rely more on theory and ideology than data (although the data do exist to support their pro-midwifery argument, so I don't know why they don't cite it more). The interviews with midwives and female OB-GYNs are the most interesting and "new" contributions to reproductive sociology, I think.

[christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i had high expectations for this book, which was enjoyable but didn't really tell me anything i didn't already know about the sociology of childbirth in the U.S.

the chapter on doulas really is rotten, though. you can't just interview 10 doulas and proclaim that doulas don't really do anything except reinforce traditional constructs of feminity.

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a sociological look at birth in America, with a focus on midwifery. I loved this book and learned so much from it. It helped me put into words the reasons why I wanted to have a midwife attended birth at a birth center, and it made me so thankful that I didn't have to birth in a hospital. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in birth and midwifery.

[JadedKiara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book about the inadequcies in the US maternal system!

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who's thinking about ever having kids.