politics
of
birth
NEW
Sheila Kitzinger
The Politics of Birth explores how we learn about birth, how we talk and feel about it, assumptions that caregivers make, and the roles and skills of midwives. Using research-based evidence, Sheila Kitzinger writes in an accessible and reader-friendly style.
OUTSTANDING FEATURES
Examines the social context of childbirth and midwifery in European and American birth cultures, and the challenges facing caregivers and childbearing women and offers an evaluation of practices and beliefs.
Aims to help the reader develop deeper insight and understanding into how a technocratic birth culture shapes our ideas about birth and obstetric practice.
Opens up constructive dialogue between healthcare professionals and birthing women.
Analyses ways in which birth and the social system perpetuates violence against women, and how we can create positive change.
Butterworth Heinemann Health ¤ May 2005 ¤ £22.99
CONTENTS
1. Giving birth
2. The birthplace
3. The clock, the bed and the chair
4. Images of birth and breastfeeding
5. Breastfeeding: public health, birth and shame
6. Birth education: from pedagogy to politics
7. The language of birth
8. Touch and its meaning
9. The caesarean epidemic
10. Court-ordered caesareans
11. Birth plans
12. Home birth
13. Waterbirth
14. Birth dance
15. What's happening to midwives?
16. Doulas
17. Fathers
18. Children at birth
19. Silence is collusion: violence in pregnancy
20. Mothers and babies behind bars
21. Pregnant asylum seekers: the dispossessed
22. Changing our birth culture
23. Reflections
24. Useful websites and addresses
Index
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