5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, May 26 2002
This review is from: What a Blessing She Had Chloroform: The Medical and Social Response to the Pain of Childbirth from 1800 to the Present (Hardcover)
This book presents the historical background behind obstetric anesthesia. In covering the developments in anesthesia, the author also summarizes major developments in the general field of medicine, especially since the 1840s. He stresses how much medicine changed from 1800 to 1900, and how the discovery and development of anesthesia played an important role in these changes. He also points out how medicine evolved from being based on tradition and assumptions into a truly scientific field during this period, and how by the end of this period, doctors could no longer simply claim that a procedure worked- -they actually had to prove it with carefully designed studies.
One trend that Caton identifies in this book is how much power patients have wielded in the decision to adopt or disregard anesthesia in childbirth. In the 1840s, many leading women demanded the use of anesthesia from doctors who were reluctant to try the new-fangled and untested idea. The turn of the twentieth century found feminist groups campaigning for access to anesthesia for all women who wanted it. Nevertheless, modern feminists protest against the medicalization of childbirth, and eschew the same anesthesia that their great grandmothers fought so hard for.
This book is very well written. Abundant citations to primary sources are found in the endnotes. Some readers may find the style a bit academic. This book isn't really intended to help a reader decide for or against a "natural" childbirth, but readers will find sound information here that gives them the background behind both sides of the debate.
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