Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank Paperback – January 17, 2011
Author: Visit Amazon's Randi Hutter Epstein Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0393339068 | Format: PDF, EPUB
Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank – January 17, 2011
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Medical journalist Epstein notes that because medical men held viewing a living woman’s anatomy medically taboo, for millennia the field of gynecology has been and, to a certain extent, remains a quirky pas de deux of science and social mores, with a bit of superstition thrown in for additional complexity. Engagingly combining wit and wisdom, Epstein traces humanity’s relationship and obsession with its own reproduction, beginning back when it was popularly believed that a woman’s menstrual blood formed itself into a child. From ancient times, however, the primary goal has consistently been to produce offspring superior to previous generations, and that opened the door to superstition. To assure healthy babies, pregnant women have been variously directed to eat certain foods and abstain from others and add or give up certain herbs and/or exercise. Notions have changed depending on era, locale, and custom. As scientific advances enable more options for reproduction, however, the entire process becomes more ethically problematical than ever. Add the multiplicity of ubiquitous myths and superstitions that refuse to go away, and the gynecological marriage of science and society endures. Although it solves no problems, this is dynamic reading, to be sure. --Donna Chavez
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
“Randi Hutter Epstein's book is full of delightful—and sometimes disturbing—anecdotes.” (NPR)
“Engagingly combining wit and wisdom, Epstein traces humanity's relationship and obsession with its own reproduction . . . dynamic reading, to be sure.” (Booklist)
“[A] fascinating and powerful recounting of conception and childbirth.” (Science News)
“Epstein's fine history of childbirth . . . carefully describes both the introduction and progress of new methods and the mind-sets that have generated, encouraged, accompanied and justified them.” (Boston Sunday Globe)
“Engagingly combining wit and wisdom, Epstein traces humanity's relationship and obsession with its own reproduction . . . dynamic reading, to be sure.” (Booklist)
“[A] fascinating and powerful recounting of conception and childbirth.” (Science News)
“Epstein's fine history of childbirth . . . carefully describes both the introduction and progress of new methods and the mind-sets that have generated, encouraged, accompanied and justified them.” (Boston Sunday Globe)
See all Editorial Reviews
Download latest books on mediafire and other links compilation Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank Paperback – January 17, 2011
- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (January 17, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0393339068
- ISBN-13: 978-0393339062
- Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.5 x 8.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #645,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #35 in Books > Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences > Medicine > Clinical > Reproductive Medicine & Technology
- #80 in Books > Medical Books > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Reproductive Medicine & Technology
This history of the last few hundred years of childbirth trends had all the makings of an irreverent romp through the messy business of baby-making. There are moments of hilarity and charm, but author Randi Epstein is smart enough to realize that much of the history of interventions in the childbearing business is built on untimely death and horrifying suffering. The curse of Eve -- by which theologians blithely assigned the pain of childbirth to the disobedience of our prodigal mother -- is a ready reality in this age of antiseptics and ultrasounds. Women still die bearing children, perhaps not as much in the industrialized world as elsewhere. But all must deal with the evolutionary tradeoff between big-headed babies and narrow birth canals that allow upright walking.
While gently mocking old trends (male doctors were once banned from actually watching childbirth and had to grope around blindly under sheets) Epstein is almost too fair when it comes to the ironies of modern childbirth trends. Those who choose elective C-sections vie with the hardy souls who insist on birthing without meds at all. The western cultural bias toward individuality in all things vies with the proven track record of medical practitioners whose experience with thousands of mothers gives them a leg up on the less experienced. Epstein is also fair about the midwife v. obstetrician controversy, acknowledging the disdain with which men looked down on women practitioners, but realizing that the midwives were hardly the font of natural knowledge that simpler histories might suggest. Epstein also bends over backward when telling of Dr. Marion Sims, the doctor who perfected techniques for repairing vaginal fistulas by injuring slave women, then sewing them up -- all without anesthetics. Was Sims a monster or a messiah?
What if we view history not by the rise and fall of empires, but through the everyday experience of childbirth through time? This is the story told in "Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank,"(W.W. Norton, $15.95 paperback) by Randi Hutter-Epstein, M.D. Witty and entertaining, the book is also encyclopedic in scope. It passes muster as a work of medical history, and at the same time, provides practical information that new mothers will find valuable.
"Get Me Out" is full of truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tales. To get pregnant, Catherine de Medici, France's sixteenth-century queen, was advised to drink mare's urine, and to soak her privates in cow manure and ground stag's antlers. In nineteenth century New York, post-partum women aired out their genitals on the hospital rooftop, high above Manhattan.
The book abounds with fascinating characters. We meet England's Chamberlen family, who for 200 years beginning in the 1500's, were renowned for their ability to safely deliver babies thanks to a secret family tool--forceps. In pre-Civil War United States, surgeon Marion Sims took ten postpartum slave women into his backyard, and by gruesome experimentation on their genitals, cured one of childbirth's most horrible side effects--vaginal rips that caused women to leak urine and feces, and to thus be outcast for the rest of their lives. This disabling postpartum condition is still common in developing countries, but no longer exists in the west, thanks to the anonymous slave women, and to Dr. Sims.
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