What a blessing she had chloroform : the medical and social response to the pain of childbirth from 1800 to the present

Caton, Donald 1937- (Author).

Summary: "This book describes in fascinating detail the history of the use of anesthesia in childbirth and in so doing offers a unique perspective on the interaction between medical science and social values. Dr. Donald Caton traces the responses of physicians and their patients to the pain of childbirth from the popularization of anesthesia to the natural childbirth movement and beyond. He finds that physicians discovered what could be done to manage pain, and patients decided what would be done."--Jacket.

Record details

ISBN: 0300075979
ISBN: 9780585362045
ISBN: 0585362041
Physical Description: 1 online resource (xvi, 288 pages) : illustrations
remote
Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, ©1999.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-277) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Pt. I. Physicians and the pain of childbirth. 1. "The head of Jove and the body of Bacchus" : James Young Simpson and the beginning of obstetric anesthesia -- "A cup of Circe" : The opposition to obstetric anesthesia -- 3. "Bled, leeched, salivated" :The transformation of medical practice by science -- 4. "The queen in her confinement" : John Snow's approach to anesthesia -- 5. "The tender organization of the newborn" : Balancing the risks of pain and anesthesia -- pt. II. Women and the pain of childbirth. 6. "The sin of our first parents" : The social connotations of pain -- 7. "This blessed chloroform" : Pain as biological and anesthesia as necessary -- 8. "There ought to be no pain" : The American women's campaign for twilight sleep -- 9. "Labor is pathogenic" : The national birthday trust fund campaign in Great Britain -- 10. "As God intended" : Grantly Dick Read and the natural childbirth movement -- pt. III. In the delivery room: physicians and women together. 11. "Pain makes things valuable" : The danger of drugs and the social value of pain -- 12. "The greatest misery of sickness is solitude" : Current controversy.
Language Note:	English.
Source of Description Note:	Print version record.