Usually the texts that talk about motherhood, childbirth or parenting are tinged with subjectivism and follow or support some concrete tendency. "How do you get out from here?" It is a cultural history of childbirth from Antiquity to today with concrete data and quite objective.
This essay by Randi Hutter Epstein gives the reader an analysis of the different ways of giving birth as a cultural event, specific to each society and each historical moment, offering a very clear picture of issues that we do not always look with enough breadth.
The advance in the history of fertility, conception, childbirth and breastfeeding is not only due to the passing of the years and the achievements of science, and even in a very short time the perspective of the same fact can be very variable , although in the end it conquers (or we hope that it conquers) common sense and what is scientifically proven.
When did you start thinking about a birth without pain? What happened to deliver births from home to the hospital? What is the origin of caesarean sections? How did maternal mortality begin to be controlled? Has breastfeeding had a bad reputation? Why sometimes there can be clashes between midwives and gynecologists? Are there good and bad in this "fight"? Is the medicalization of childbirth the triumph of male control over women?
These are just some of the questions that I have found most interesting about this work and that are treated without Manichaeism, in a quite realistic way, offering all points of view, sometimes data for and against, and in a reinforced speech with historical data and excellent documentation.
The author speaks to us of topics widely discussed (and discussed) in our pages, such as the theme of "the natural" (which can be more or less good), fashion for it and its relationship with certain social movements. The gestation "at a distance" with the techniques of fertilization or the belly of rent are other of the controversial subjects that crumble in the book.
I especially liked the open door that leaves the author to superstition, to myths, because after all, many supposed scientists have ended up falling. And in this way the birth is still covered with a magic halo.
It is true that much of "How do you get out from here?" It focuses on the United States, after all it is the author's environment and where it has been formed and documented. But of course Europe is present and also the rest of the world, and it is interesting to discover the differences between societies and cultures in this birth.
Content of the book "How do you get out of here?"
The original title of the book is "Get Me Out. A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank": 'A story of the birth from the garden of Eden to the sperm banks'. And this is the chronological route that follows, although in each chapter it focuses on a different aspect and also refers to the past.
The work is divided into five major sections and 14 chapters of suggestive statement that we list below, bounded by the introduction, epilogue and an extensive bibliography and references by chapters.
- The cup was Eva. Childbirth in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
- Armed men. The use of forceps from the 17th to the 19th centuries
- The contribution of slaves to gynecology
- Die to give life
- Far from home. The first maternity clinics
- Being born is nothing but dream and forgetfulness
- What would I be thinking? Freud and fertility
- Most natural
- Toxic tips and a deadly drug
- From home surgery to the art of caesarean section
- Born free
- An array with views
- Sperm markets
- Keep cold
The American author, Randi Hutter Epstein, is a mother, doctor of Medicine, journalist in medical media and writer of chronicles and columns in media such as The New York Times, The Washington Post or The Daily Telegraph. In a language that is close and understandable to the general public, the book gives a lot of information in a pleasant way, encouraging curiosity and the desire to continue reading in the reader. To this we invite the introduction:
The birth of a child is today, as then past times, a wonderful mix of science and tradition. how do you get out from here? it is about the evolution of the councils and about the scientific advances, about the variety of options that couples have and about the type of decisions that are made (…)
"How do you get out from here?" is edited by Turner in the Noema collection, it costs 24 euros and there are 274 pages that fly by if you are interested in the issue of childbirth from a historical and anecdotal point of view. Both for those of us who have been through it and for future parents, I think it can provide a lot of information and lead to reflection and debate.
Official Site | Turner Books On Babies and more | "How to be a first-time father and not die trying", a book by Frank Blanco full of humor (not loaded), "Dad, the child is also yours": fun manual for first-time parents, "The baby list": a book with the essential purchases (or not so much) for the arrival of the baby
