Brought to Bed : Childbearing in America, 1750-1950

Childbearing in America, 1750-1950

Author: Madison Judith Walzer Leavitt Associate Professor of History of Medicine and Women's Studies University of Wisconsin
ISBN: 9780195056907

"Childbirth is more than a biological even in women's lives," writes Judith Leavitt. "It is a vital component in the social definition of women." This book uses personal accounts by birthing women and their medical attendants to show how childbirth has changed from colonial times to the present. Brought to Bed describes the traditional woman-centered home-birthing practices and their replacement by male doctors and the movement of birth from the home to the hospital. Leavitt points out that childbearing women and their physicians gradually changed birth practices because they believed the increased medicalization would make birth safer and more comfortable. The irony was that infant and maternal mortality did not immediately decline when childbirth moved into the hospital--because of the danger of infection--and more and more women found the birth experience to be an alienating one. Outside of their homes, they felt "alone among strangers". Leavitt concludes that birthing women held co

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publish Date: 1986-10-30

Subjects: Health & Fitness / Women's Health, Health & Fitness / Pregnancy & Childbirth

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Pregnancy)