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Book
Author Caton, Donald, 1937-

Title What a blessing she had chloroform : the medical and social response to the pain of childbirth from 1800 to the present
Published New Haven, Conn : Yale University Press, 1999

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  617.9 Cat/Wab  AVAILABLE
Description xvi, 288 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Series Otto Hirschfeld Memorial Collection
Otto Hirschfeld Memorial Collection
Contents 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. 2. "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
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
Analysis Anesthesia, Obstetrical--History
Notes Includes bibliographical references and index
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Subject Childbirth -- History.
Anesthesia in obstetrics -- History.
Pain -- Prevention -- History.
Analgesia, Obstetrical.
History of Medicine.
Pain.
Natural Childbirth.
Labor
Anesthesia, Obstetrical -- history.
Labor, Obstetric.
Pain -- prevention & control.
Genre/Form History.
LC no. 98036869
ISBN 0300075979