Brought to Bed

Download or read book Brought to Bed written by Judith Walzer Leavitt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on personal accounts by birthing women and their medical attendants, Brought to Bed reveals how childbirth has changed from colonial times to the late twentieth century. Judith Walzer Leavitt's classic study focuses on the traditional woman-centered home-birthing practices, their replacement by male doctors, and the movement from the home to the hospital. Leavitt narrates the shifting power of childbearing women and their physicians, as well as changes in infant and maternal mortality. She also discusses how women have attempted to retrieve some of the traditional women--and family--centered aspects of childbirth. This 30th anniversary edition includes a new preface that reviews the burgeoning writing on the history of childbirth since its publication.