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Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care 1st Da Capo Press Edition
Author(s): Jennifer Block (Author)
- Publisher: Perseus Books
- Publication Date: 4 Jun. 2007
- Edition: 1st Da Capo Press Ed
- Language: English
- Print length: 336 pages
- ISBN-10: 0738210730
- ISBN-13: 9780738210735
Book Description
This book offers a provocative and incisive analysis of medical intervention at childbirth – an experience fast becoming the norm in America, even as women seek more choice. In the U.S, nearly half of all mothers are chemically induced into labour whether they want it or not, and almost a third give birth via Caesarean section. For women who want an alternative, choice is often unavailable: Midwives are outlawed in eleven states and birthing centres are illegal in one. When did birth become an emergency instead of an emergence? When did normal, physiological birth become a crime? A groundbreaking journalistic narrative, “Pushed” presents the complete picture of birth in America from the frontlines. Crisscrossing the country to investigate all sides of the issue, and witness to several births – from a planned Caesarean to an underground home birth – Jennifer Block examines childbirth as a reproductive rights issue, exploring the implications of the widely held assumption that routine C-sections, inductions, and epidurals equal medical progress. Block’s research and experience show that while medical intervention certainly has its place, there is compelling evidence that we are overusing medical technology at the expense of maternal and foetal health: Either women’s bodies are failing, or the system is failing women.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Jennifer Block is a former editor at Ms. Magazine and an editor of the revised Our Bodies, Ourselves. Her work has appeared in such publications as the Village Voice and Elle. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
