Birth Chairs, Midwives, and Medicine (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Long before delivery rooms, operating tables, stirrups, fetal monitors, and forceps, birth practices were simpler and less invasive..." (more)
Key Phrases: birth chairs, alternative birth movement, footrest attachments, New York, United States, Pennsylvania Hospital (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

There was a time when birth was treated as a natural process rather than a medical condition. Before 1800, women gave birth seated in birth chairs or on stools and were helped along by midwives. Then societal changes in attitudes toward women and the practice of medicine made birthing a province of the male-dominated medical profession.

In Birth Chairs, Midwives, and Medicine, Amanda Carson Banks examines the history of the birth chair and tells how this birthing device changed over time. Through photographs, artists' renditions of births, interviews, and texts from midwives and early obstetricians, she creates an evolutionary picture of birthing practices and highlights the radical redefinition of birth that has occurred in the last two centuries.

During the 1800s the change from a natural philosophy of birth to a medical one was partly a result of heightened understandings of anatomy and physiology. The medical profession was growing, and with it grew the awareness of the economic rewards of making delivery a specialized practice. In the background of the medical profession's rise was the prevailing perception of women as fragile invalids. Gradually, midwives and birth chairs were relegated to rural and isolated settings.

The popularity of birth chairs has seen a revival in the late twentieth century as the struggle between medical obstetrics and the alternative birth movement has grown. As Banks shows through her careful examination of the chairs themselves, these questions have been answered and reconsidered many times in human history. Using the artifacts from the home and medical office, Banks traces sweeping societal changes in the philosophy of how to bring life into the world.

From the Inside Flap

A fascinating exploration of how birth chairs and birthing methods have evolved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 154 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi; 1 edition (November 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578061725
• ISBN-13: 978-1578061723
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,260,849 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than Furniture, January 22, 2001

By	R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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You hardly expect that a type of furniture would tell direct stories about medical history and the relationship between the sexes and between doctors and patients through the ages. However, in a surprising book _Birth Chairs, Midwives, and Medicine_ (University Press of Mississippi) by Amanda Carson Banks, we get quite a lesson in history and medical sociology. Some of the lessons don't reflect well on medical practitioners or on societal choice at all.

This well-illustrated book shows birth chairs and stools from many cultures and times. They were low, about ten or thirteen inches, and they had a more or less straight back. They had the simple job of supporting the woman in a squat, a position that allowed her to brace her feet against the ground and that allowed gravity to help. They had a very narrow seat, or a seat that had a horseshoe-shaped cut out, to allow the midwife access to the birth canal and delivery. They came in many styles, because they were generally made or ordered by the midwives that owned them.

Because of the rise of the profession of medicine, and because obstetrics was a source of professional endeavor and income, chairs changed. The seats became higher, allowing the doctor an easier view and more room for manipulation. The attitude seemed to be that midwives could put up with back strain, but doctors wouldn't; it didn't matter that the position of squatting was eliminated, so that the woman could do less to brace herself during contractions. The chairs also became more gadget-ridden, with adjustable backs, seats, arms, and stirrups. The doctor would probably adjust these to his convenience. The innovations of gadgets on what were formerly simple stools started to include chair backs that could descend to the horizontal, making the lithotomy position an option. Increasingly, birth chairs became more like operating tables, and the role of the woman centrally involved became less important than the duties of those conducting the delivery. Birth chairs came into fashion again with the rise of the women's rights movement, but doctors only grudgingly accepted them.

This is a lot of medical history for the lowly birth chair to bear, but Banks has written a thought-provoking summary of just how societies have regarded birth chairs and midwives, and how we got to the current era of continued medical intervention in labor and delivery. To her credit, she has written a history rather than a polemic, but the history cannot help but question whether abandoning birth chairs has been good for mothers or their babies.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A major addition to women's studies/material culture!, December 3, 1999

By	Anne Swartz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Birth Chairs, Midwives, and Medicine (Hardcover)

Amanda Banks has written a major contribution to women's studies and material culture studies with this book. It addresses many of the historical matters about birth and birthing, focusing on how women were more empowered in previous generations during the birthing process through theutilization of birth chairs. This book is a must for anyone interested in the history of women's experience.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars informative & interesting read!, June 26, 2003

By	Mark DeLuca (Altoona, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This book provides a very interesting and informative detail of the history of birth culture in America as discovered through the study of birth chairs. In incluedes intriguing pictorial documentations of birth chairs and how they evolved into the modern maternity beds in use today.