Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This collection of essays contains leading research in maternity care from Europe, the United States and Canada to discuss systems of care for pregnancy and childbirth. Birth By Design focuses on the practical side of 'good' social science research. This is a ground-breaking work that looks not only at maternity, but also the act of childbirth.
Synopsis
Birth is a universal experience, yet the way birth is treated is by no means universal. In the United States, for example, almost all births occur in a hospital under the supervision of a doctor, while in the Netherlands thirty percent of births occur at home and midwives attend nearly half of all deliveries. Birth by Design is the first truly comparative and multidisciplinary study of maternity care and birth practices by leading experts in maternity care from the United States, Canada, and Europe. The authors explore the tangled histories of midwifery and obstetrics, the role of the state and of social movements in care at birth, the rise of managed care, and the impact of new perinatal technologies. Birth by Design offers a groundbreaking, cross-cultural understanding of maternity care and childbirth.
Table of Contents
Introduction: why maternity care is not medical care -- Pt. I. The politics of maternity care -- Where to give birth? Politics and the place of birth -- The state and birth/The state of birth: maternal health policy in three countries -- Changing birth: interest groups and maternal care policy -- Reforming birth and (re)making midwifery in North America -- Looking within: race, class, and birth -- Pt. II. Providing care -- Deciding who cares: winners and losers in the late twentieth century -- Designing midwives: a comparison of educational models -- Telling stories of midwives - Spoiling the pregnancy: prenatal diagnosis in the Netherlands -- Pt. III. Society, technology, and practice -- Maternity care policies and maternity care practices: a tale of two Germanys -- Constructing risk: maternity care, law, and malpractice -- Obstetrical trajectories: on trading women/bodies for (home) birth -- What (and why) do women want? The desires of women and the design of maternity care.