Obstetrician and gynecologist Magnus Murphy, MD, and journalist/advocate Pauline McDonagh Hull offer a compelling case for surgical delivery as a legitimate birth choice for informed women. By offering a wealth of medical evidence from around the world and thoughtfully countering the many objections detractors have lodged against it, the authors convincingly demonstrate that a planned cesarean birth at thirty-nine- plus weeks is a safe and often preferred alternative to a planned vaginal delivery. An indispensable guide for women, their families, and medical professionals.
The delivery of high quality and equitable care for both mothers and newborns is complex and requires efforts across many sectors. The United States spends more on childbirth than any other country in the world, yet outcomes are worse than other high-resource countries, and even worse for Black and Native American women. There are a variety of factors that influence childbirth, including social determinants such as income, educational levels, access to care, financing, transportation, structural racism and geographic variability in birth settings. It is important to reevaluate the United States' approach to maternal and newborn care through the lens of these factors across multiple disciplines. Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice reviews and evaluates maternal and newborn care in the United States, the epidemiology of social and clinical risks in pregnancy and childbirth, birth settings research, and access to and choice of birth settings.
Why have cesarean sections become so commonplace in the United States? Between 1965 and 1987, the cesarean section rate in the United States rose precipitously—from 4.5 percent to 25 percent of births. By 2009, one in three births was by cesarean, a far higher number than the 5–10% rate that the World Health Organization suggests is optimal. While physicians largely avoided cesareans through the mid-twentieth century, by the early twenty-first century, cesarean section was the most commonly performed surgery in the country. Although the procedure can be lifesaving, how—and why—did it become so ubiquitous? Cesarean Section is the first book to chronicle this history. In exploring the creation of the complex social, cultural, economic, and medical factors leading to the surgery's increase, Jacqueline H. Wolf describes obstetricians' reliance on assorted medical technologies that weakened the skills they had traditionally employed to foster vaginal birth. She also reflects on an unsettling malpractice climate—prompted in part by a raft of dubious diagnoses—that helped to legitimize "defensive medicine," and a health care system that ensured cesarean birth would be more lucrative than vaginal birth. In exaggerating the risks of vaginal birth, doctors and patients alike came to view cesareans as normal and, increasingly, as essential. Sweeping change in women's lives beginning in the 1970s cemented this markedly different approach to childbirth. Wolf examines the public health effects of a high cesarean rate and explains how the language of reproductive choice has been used to discourage debate about cesareans and the risks associated with the surgery. Drawing on data from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century obstetric logs to better represent the experience of cesarean surgery for women of all classes and races, as well as interviews with obstetricians who have performed cesareans and women who have given birth by cesarean, Cesarean Section is the definitive history of the use of this surgical procedure and its effects on women's and children's health in the United States.
In an unbiased, authoritative guide on C-sections, mothers-to-be are offered vital information on the procedure, such as why Cesareans are performed, what the procedure entails, and strategies to help them recover from the surgery. Original. 15,000 first printing.
Trusted physicians reassure mothers and mothers-to-be: It's okay to say yes. One in four babies born in the United States and Europe comes into the world via Cesarean section. Yet this procedure has been described by critics as an unnecessary and potentially dangerous medical intervention. Consequently, expectant mothers often fear this option, and women who have had C-sections can feel a sense of failure. In Cesarean Section: Understanding and Celebrating Your Baby's Birth, Drs. Michele Moore and Caroline de Costa emphasize the joy of delivering a healthy baby, however that is best achieved. They explain why Cesarean births are sometimes preferable to vaginal delivery for both mother and baby, and they help women understand the issues behind the decision to perform the procedure. From anesthesia, surgery, and recovery through at-home care of mother and child, the authors offer reassurance and practical information for all mothers and mothers-to-be. They also discuss the latest findings on postpartum depression and planning for future births, including the possibility of vaginal birth after a Cesarean section. For every woman who has a planned—or unplanned—Cesarean section, this book provides the information they need to alleviate their fears and come to value this delivery option. "Because up to a quarter of all births are Cesarean births, prenatal preparation should include information about Cesarean sections for every woman. And that is why we have written this guide. . . . We believe strongly that it is time to speak out and say that Cesarean section is a normal birth method and that women who have a Cesarean section should not be made to feel that they have failed. . . . We hope you find the information in this book useful and helpful in thinking about C-section, whether you have already had a Cesarean and want to understand the experience better, you wish to plan for another C-section birth, or you are expecting a baby and want to be informed about all the possibilities ahead, including this other normal way of bringing a baby into the world."—from the Introduction
Of comparative developed countries, only Brazil and Italy have higher c-section rates; c-sections occur in only 19 percent of births in France, seventeen percent of births in Japan, and sixteen percent of births in Finland. How did this happen? Here the author challenges most existing explanations of the unprecedented rise in c-section rates, which locate the cause of this trend in physicians practicing defensive medicine, women choosing c-sections for scheduling reasons, or women's poor health and older ages. The explanation of the c-section epidemic is more complicated, taking into account the power and structure of legal, political, medical, and professional organizations; gendered ideas that devalue women; hospital organizational structures and protocols; and professional standards in the medical and insurance communities.
Caesarean Section has become the most common major operation in the world, and with the increasing number there are many serious and long-term healthcare implications for gynaecology, general surgery, neonatology, and epigenetics. A full perspective of the procedure and its consequences is therefore essential for practitioners, residents, and trainees alike. The Textbook of Caesarean Section is the key textbook on this subject, and is an informative and practical tool for clinicians performing this procedure in all areas of the world. The accompanying professional medical videos demonstrate in clear and expert detail the two alternative procedures for caesarean section, ensuring that readers of this book gain an in-depth understanding of the techniques involved, and supporting blended learning in postgraduate education globally. Written by a distinguished team of expert contributors, this book carefully describes current best practice for caesarean section alongside key chapters on the history of caesarean section, and other important and related issues that obstetricians must be aware of, such as anaesthesia, prevention of complications of surgery, reproduction after C-section, and perinatal outcomes. The text is extensively illustrated with colour images, and fully referenced throughout, providing all the information essential for the reader to perform the optimal caesarean delivery procedures, and diagnose and manage the short- and long-term complications associated with different methods of caesarean sections.
Discusses obstetricians' reluctance to help women have subsequent children naturally after having a cesarean, and provides advice on choosing a willing caregiver and preparing for the birth
This book is meant to bridge the gap between small handbooks that do not contain enough material to understand why you are doing certain things and large textbooks that lack the practical information you need for how to do specific procedures, write notes, orders, and dictations. After reading it, you will be prepared to care for an obstetric patient from the moment they arrive in triage until the time they are discharged. You will understand not only how to perform both simple and complicated procedures, but also why they are necessary, and you will have the answers to the most common pimp questions that are asked of students and residents. The most up-to-date literature and evidence-based recommendations have been used to create simple treatment algorithms for the most common issues you will face, and numerous illustrations are included for clarity as well. Because of its focus, this book is also valuable resource for staff physicians who need an updated text on current obstetric care as well as for those who regularly interact with and teach medical students and residents.
"Not of woman born, the Fortunate, the Unborn"—the terms designating those born by Caesarean section in medieval and Renaissance Europe were mysterious and ambiguous. Examining representations of Caesarean birth in legend and art and tracing its history in medical writing, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski addresses the web of religious, ethical, and cultural questions concerning abdominal delivery in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Not of Woman Born increases our understanding of the history of the medical profession, of medical iconography, and of ideas surrounding "unnatural" childbirth. Blumenfeld-Kosinski compares texts and visual images in order to trace the evolution of Caesarean birth as it was perceived by the main actors involved—pregnant women, medical practitioners, and artistic or literary interpreters. Bringing together medical treatises and texts as well as hitherto unexplored primary sources such as manuscript illuminations, she provides a fresh perspective on attitudes toward pregnancy and birth in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; the meaning and consequences of medieval medicine for women as both patients and practitioners, and the professionalization of medicine. She discusses writings on Caesarean birth from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when Church Councils ordered midwives to perform the operation if a mother died during childbirth in order that the child might be baptized; to the fourteenth century, when the first medical text, Bernard of Gordon's Lilium medicinae, mentioned the operation; up to the gradual replacement of midwives by male surgeons in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Not of Woman Born offers the first close analysis of Frarnois Rousset's 1581 treatise on the operation as an example of sixteenth-century medical discourse. It also considers the ambiguous nature of Caesarean birth, drawing on accounts of such miraculous examples as the birth of the Antichrist. An appendix reviews the complex etymological history of the term "Caesarean section." Richly interdisciplinary, Not of Woman Born will enliven discussions of the controversial issues surrounding Caesarean delivery today. Medical, social, and cultural historians interested in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, historians, literary scholars, midwives, obstetricians, nurses, and others concerned with women's history will want to read it.
