Review
It is sometimes difficult to reconcile the attitudes of contemporary thought with the historical event that is under consideration. As I closed the book, I was still uncertain about whether more anesthesia is better. But I am relieved that we live in an era in which it is no longer accepted that there is a physiological advantage to pain during labor.
(Samuel Lurie, M.D.
New England Journal of Medicine 2009)
I would recommend this book to health professionals who are committed to understanding and acknowledging that every woman experiences childbirth in an individual and unique manner.
(Carol Piercey
Health and History 2010)
It is perhaps Wolf's utter engagement with the material that is responsible for producing such a dynamic history.
(Cara Kinzelman
Journal of the History of Biology 2010)
Wolf opens her readers' eyes to the vast history that has layered the medical community's ignorance onto a persistent belief that childbirth is the worst pain a human will ever experience, then topped it off with a population's growing need to 'schedule' birth into our increasingly busy lives, and come up with a society... [that] should not—really, cannot—labor without numbing their bodies to the sensations of birth.
(
Midwifery Today 2010)
Much needed addition to the blossoming scholarly work on childbirth history.
(Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D.
Women's Review of Books 2010)
Wolf has written a fascinating overview of childbirth from the 1840s to the present day. In doing so she has used women's voices to advantage, letting them tell their own experiences.
(Wendy Mitchinson
Medical History 2010)
Wolf's unique focus on pain management brings a fresh perspective to the literature about childbirth and new understandings of this life-changing event in women's lives and histories.
(Rebecca M. Kluchin
Bulletin of the History of Medicine 2010)
Like many of the women she describes, Wolf has delivered a beautiful product that is both painless and joyful to encounter.
(Philip K. Wilson
American Historical Review 2010)
Deliver Me from Pain is an important addition to the literature, especially in the history of gender and pharmaceuticals... An absorbing and informative tale.
(Shannon K. Withycombe
Pharmacy in History )
An important study of the choices made by other generations. For those who care about and study birth, understanding how we got here and why is imperative in considering where we go from here.
(Donna Harvel Balo CNM, ARNP, MS.
Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health )
From the Back Cover
Despite historically low maternal and infant mortality rates in the United States, labor continues to evoke fear among American women. Rather than embrace the natural childbirth methods promoted in the 1970s, most women welcome epidural anesthesia and even cesarean deliveries. In Deliver Me from Pain, Jacqueline H. Wolf asks how obstetric anesthesia, even when it historically posed serious risk to mothers and newborns, paradoxically came to assuage women's anxiety about giving birth.
"Like many of the women she describes, Wolf has delivered a beautiful product that is both painless and joyful to encounter."— American Historical Review
"Wolf's unique focus on pain management brings a fresh perspective to the literature about childbirth and new understandings of this life-changing event in women's lives and histories."— Bulletin of the History of Medicine
"It is perhaps Wolf's utter engagement with the material that is responsible for producing such a dynamic history."— Journal of the History of Biology
"Much needed addition to the blossoming scholarly work on childbirth history."— Women's Review of Books
"A fascinating overview of childbirth from the 1840s to the present day."— Medical History
"An important study of the choices made by other generations. For those who care about and study birth, understanding how we got here and why is imperative in considering where we go from here."— Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health
"I would recommend this book to health professionals who are committed to understanding and acknowledging that every woman experiences childbirth in an individual and unique manner."— Health and History
