This is not a book about the miracle of life. It is about the role of money and politics in a lucrative industry; a saga of champagne birthing suites for the rich and desperate measures for the poor. It is a drama in which midwives are raided at gunpoint to safeguard a lucrative medical monopoly; and in which caesareans are urged to excess so that doctors are protected in case of malpratice suits.
In 1962, Jessica Mitford shocked the nation with The American Way of Death, her best-selling investigation of shady practices in the funeral business. Now she turns her penetrating gaze to the opposite extreme of human experience.
Mitford examines conventional and alternative birth methods, public-health programs, the costs of having a child, and much more. Her inescapable conclusion - that the American way of birth is more a product of greed and political expediency than of concern for mothers and babies - will revolutionize the way we think about a universal rite of passage.
2 audio cassette tapes (3 hours).
Mitford examines conventional and alternative birth methods, public-health programs, the costs of having a child, and much more. Her inescapable conclusion - that the American way of birth is more a product of greed and political expediency than of concern for mothers and babies - will revolutionize the way we think about a universal rite of passage.
2 audio cassette tapes (3 hours).
The woman who wrote this book was born in 1917. Although it was written in 1992 it is still accurate on the state of birth here in the US.
