Birth as an American Rite of Passage: Second Edition, With a New PrefaceWhy do so many American women allow themselves to become enmeshed in the standardized routines of technocratic childbirth--routines that can be insensitive, unnecessary, and even unhealthy? Anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd first addressed these questions in the 1992 edition. Her new preface to this 2003 edition of a book that has been read, applauded, and loved by women all over the world, makes it clear that the issues surrounding childbirth remain as controversial as ever. |
Contents
Birth as a Rite of Passage | 1 |
The Stages of the PregnancyChildbirth Rite of Passage | 22 |
Past and Present | 44 |
3 Birth Messages | 73 |
The Technocratic Wholistic and Natural Models | 154 |
The Spectrum of Response | 187 |
The Reinterpretation of the Childbirth Experience | 241 |
7 Obstetric Training as a Rite of Passage | 252 |
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Common terms and phrases
anesthesia baby baby's belief system birth at home birth experience birth process birth rituals birthing center birthing women body breathing Brigitte Jordan C-section cervical cervix Cesarean rate Cesarean section Chapter child childbirth educators cognitive conceptual contractions core value cultural Description and Official dilation doctor doula drugs emotional enema entered the hospital epidural episiotomy feel felt female fetal monitor give birth going home birth hospital birth human husband individual initiate interventions interviewed Journal laboring woman Lamaze lithotomy position machine maternal medical school messages Midwifery midwives model of birth mother natural childbirth newborn nurses obstetrical procedures obstetricians Official Rationale pain paradigm patients percent performed physicians pitocin position postpartum practice pregnancy pregnancy and birth pregnant women Press psychological push residency result rite of passage Ritual Purposes rituals of hospital routine social society's symbolic technocratic model thing tion transformation uterine uterus VBAC Vitamin K wholistic model Women's Responses