Deliver Me from Pain: Anesthesia and Birth in America

by Wolf, Jacqueline H.

• ISBN13: 9780801891106
• ISBN10: 0801891108
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781421403236
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-02-01
• Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS
• More Book Details

Summary

Like other public debates about women's reproductive health and medicine, the century-and-a-half-long discussion of the necessity and efficacy of obstetric anesthesia has been characterized by hyperbole. Voices of moderation have been drowned out by the proponents of two extreme and contradictory views of labor. The words of two nineteenth-century physicians exemplify these views. One argued that birthing chambers were principally scenes of 'cheerfulness and gayety.' The other portrayed labor as 'terrible torture, hopeless of relief.' These diametrically opposed views have persisted. The statements of two mothers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries paint the same irreconcilable pictures. One described her unmedicated labor as 'the most ecstatic, interesting, adventurous, exciting, enjoyable and personally triumphant accomplishment I have yet known.' The other condemned unanesthetized childbirth as 'a barbaric ritual.' No matter the century, proponents of the 'cheerful' and 'ecstatic' view of labor contend that obstetric anesthesia is wholly unnecessary and extremely dangerous; proponents of the 'terrible' and 'barbaric' view declare anesthesia to be an unequivocal necessity for all women who care about dignity, comfort, and health." Book jacket.

Author Biography

Jacqueline H. Wolf is an associate professor of the history of medicine in the Department of Social Medicine at Ohio University and author of Don't Kill Your Baby: Public Health and the Decline of Breastfeeding in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. She is also the host of Health Vision, a weekly show on contemporary health and medicine airing on the PBS affiliate in Southeast Ohio.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction
"Terrible Torture" or "The Nicest Sensation I've Ever Had"? Conflicting Perceptions of Labor in U.S. History	p. 1
Ether and Chloroform: The Question of Necessity, 1840s through 1890s	p. 13
Twilight Sleep: The Question of Professional Respect, 1890s through 1930s	p. 44
Developing the Obstetric Anesthesia Arsenal: The Question of Safety, 1900 through 1960s	p. 73
Giving Birth to the Baby Boomers: The Question of Convenience, 1940s through 1960s	p. 105
Natural Childbirth and Birth Reform: The Question of Authority, 1950s through 1980s	p. 136
Epidural Anesthesia and Cesarean Section: The Question of Choice, 1970s to the Present	p. 168
Glossary of Medical Terminology	p. 197
Notes	p. 205
Index	p. 267
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