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Randi Hutter Epstein

Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank Hardcover – January 11, 2010

by Randi Hutter Epstein M.D. (Author)

73 ratings

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From a witty, relentlessly inquisitive medical writer, an eye-opening history of pregnancy and birthing joys and debacles.

Making and having babies―what it takes to get pregnant, stay pregnant, and deliver―has mystified women and men for the whole of human history. The birth gurus of ancient times told newlyweds that simultaneous orgasms were necessary for conception and that during pregnancy a woman should drink red wine but not too much and have sex but not too frequently. Over the last one hundred years, depending on the latest prevailing advice, women have taken morphine, practiced Lamaze, relied on ultrasound images, sampled fertility drugs, and shopped at sperm banks.

In Get Me Out, the insatiably curious Randi Hutter Epstein journeys through history, fads, and fables, and to the fringe of science, where audacious researchers have gone to extreme measures to get healthy babies out of mothers. Here is an entertaining must-read―and an enlightening celebration of human life. 22 illustrations

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

January 11, 2010
Dimensions

5.9 x 1 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0393064581
ISBN-13

978-0393064582
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Medical journalist Epstein notes that because medical men held viewing a living woman’s anatomy medically taboo, for millennia the field of gynecology has been and, to a certain extent, remains a quirky pas de deux of science and social mores, with a bit of superstition thrown in for additional complexity. Engagingly combining wit and wisdom, Epstein traces humanity’s relationship and obsession with its own reproduction, beginning back when it was popularly believed that a woman’s menstrual blood formed itself into a child. From ancient times, however, the primary goal has consistently been to produce offspring superior to previous generations, and that opened the door to superstition. To assure healthy babies, pregnant women have been variously directed to eat certain foods and abstain from others and add or give up certain herbs and/or exercise. Notions have changed depending on era, locale, and custom. As scientific advances enable more options for reproduction, however, the entire process becomes more ethically problematical than ever. Add the multiplicity of ubiquitous myths and superstitions that refuse to go away, and the gynecological marriage of science and society endures. Although it solves no problems, this is dynamic reading, to be sure. --Donna Chavez

About the Author

Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D., M.P.H., the author of Aroused and Get Me Out, is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, a lecturer at Yale University, and writer in residence at Yale Medical School. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and the Psychology Today blog, among others. She lives in New York.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (January 11, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393064581
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393064582
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.9 x 1 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #618,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #108 in Reproductive Medicine & Technology (Books)
- #388 in Obstetrics & Gynecology (Books)
- #864 in History of Medicine (Books)

Customer Reviews:
73 ratings

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5 star		59%
4 star		17%
3 star		16%
2 star		7%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Ms. L

Interesting!

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2018

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This book takes you through what women have endured throughout history to deliver a baby. Some of the experiences are ridiculous and/or frightening from a 21st century view. That does not diminish the facts. Childbirth is a painful but wonderful miracle! As a woman who has borne children, raised them and now enjoy grandchildren I found this to be an interesting read and if you read it expect to feel a variety of emotions.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon reader

Witty and encyclopedic

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2011

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What if we view history not by the rise and fall of empires, but through the everyday experience of childbirth through time? This is the story told in "Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank,"(W.W. Norton, $15.95 paperback) by Randi Hutter-Epstein, M.D. Witty and entertaining, the book is also encyclopedic in scope. It passes muster as a work of medical history, and at the same time, provides practical information that new mothers will find valuable.

"Get Me Out" is full of truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tales. To get pregnant, Catherine de Medici, France's sixteenth-century queen, was advised to drink mare's urine, and to soak her privates in cow manure and ground stag's antlers. In nineteenth century New York, post-partum women aired out their genitals on the hospital rooftop, high above Manhattan.

The book abounds with fascinating characters. We meet England's Chamberlen family, who for 200 years beginning in the 1500's, were renowned for their ability to safely deliver babies thanks to a secret family tool--forceps. In pre-Civil War United States, surgeon Marion Sims took ten postpartum slave women into his backyard, and by gruesome experimentation on their genitals, cured one of childbirth's most horrible side effects--vaginal rips that caused women to leak urine and feces, and to thus be outcast for the rest of their lives. This disabling postpartum condition is still common in developing countries, but no longer exists in the west, thanks to the anonymous slave women, and to Dr. Sims. We meet Berkeley mom and activist Pat Cody, who took on the powerful drug companies that manufactured DES (diethylstilbestrol), a synthetic hormone given to millions of women as a pregnancy enhancer, but which instead caused cancer and birth defects for children exposed in utero. We get a personal glimpse of sperm bank proprietor Dr. Cappy Rothman, who lives in a home decorated with penis sculptures, and whose California Cryobank has a masturbatorium wallpapered with porn.

The quest for healthier, pain free childbirth is one of the book's many storylines. In the Garden of Eden, Eve cheated on her diet with an apple, as the author's version of the tale goes. In this manner, the first woman incurred the sentence of painful childbirth for all women. Virtue and painful childbirth were so synonymous that in 1591 Scotland, Eufame Maclayne was burned at the stake for requesting pain relief while birthing twins. Only in the early 1900's did pain relief in childbirth become socially acceptable, reflecting a time when women discarded their corsets and danced without chaperones. Lithuanian immigrant Lane Bryant (nee Lina Himmelstein) started the first line of maternity wear. "Twilight Sleep," became a fad in which upper class American women traveled to Germany to undergo birthing while knocked out by morphine and sedatives. Backlash begat the freebirthers movement, and later, Lamaze.

"Get Me Out" also offers cautionary tales about technology and pregnancy. In the 1930's, X-rays were a routine part of prenatal exams. Even after fetal X-ray exposure was linked to leukemia in 1956, prenatal X-rays continued for another 20 years. Dr. Hutter-Epstein uses the example of X-rays to provide a context for the widespread use of prenatal ultrasounds today. "We must not forget that it took nearly half a century for the damaging effects of X-rays upon the fetus in utero to come to light," cautions Ian Donald, the very obstetrician who pioneered fetal ultrasound.

"Get Me Out" indeed covers a lot of ground. Several storylines could have been better developed. But altogether, this is a commendable book, readable yet rigorous, written by a woman with the unusual qualifications of medical journalist, an editor of the Yale Journal of Humanities and Medicine, and also, a mother of four.

16 people found this helpful

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Shelli Armstrong

Interesting and Easy to Digest

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2020

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I found the writing style simple and informative. Unbiased and interesting. I learned a bit while diving a little deeper into things I already knew and stumbled on some new information altogether.

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2012

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As an OB nurse I truly enjoyed reading this book although this is an easy enough read for someone not in this particular field as well. I had no idea the amount of history that I didn't know about the history of birth in our culture. I enjoyed her easy going way of writing, making this a very easy read that left me still feeling that I learned something! I recommend for anyone that has even the smallest desire to know the history of birth and really how far medicine has come...although I must say it seems the midwives have understood the reality of the ins and outs of birth lonnnnnnggggg before their time.

2 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Educational

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2017

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It was a well written and educational book about childbirth and how things have evolved and continue to evolve. It was done in a fun way with language that was easy to understand and less like a medical text book.

Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2011

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When I was pregnant with my 2nd child I heard this author in an interview on the radio and was very interested in the book. She is a Dr, but she doesn't shy away from shining a light on some of the mistakes the medical community has made in the past. A long history of thoughts/experiments in childbirth are touched on. I recommended it to my midwife and she loved it, but you don't have to speak medicalese to understand this book. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in child birth, either their own or anyone eles.

One person found this helpful

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I Read and I Know Things

Good Read but Not a Comprehensive History

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2011

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While an interesting and engaging read, this is by far from a comprehensive history of birth. It only goes in-depth on a few isolated topics (the invent of forceps, a couple of early U.S. obstetric hospitals, and modern artificial conception.) This reads more like a serial newspaper article than a non-fiction book. This is not a book I would recommend to others who want to know more about birth and birth history.

3 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A good addition to your history of childbirth collection (you have one, don't you?)

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2013

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This book is highly readable. At the same time, it could have done with a good swift edit. I don't need exclamation marks and snarky jokes to keep me interested - I'm reading a book about the topic because I'm already fascinated by it.

This book is thoroughly researched but with some puzzling gaps. I can't fathom how she can write about the maternal mortality rate in early and mid-20th Century USA without mentioning the current state of the maternal mortality rate in the US. It is abominable and *rising* (a woman giving birth today is 2x as likely to die from complications thereof than her mother was). Look up the Amnesty International report if you purchase this book. Supplementary reading and all. ;)

Epstein is a medical doctor; her understanding of the history of childbirth (which has only recently become the domain of doctors, e.g. over the last 70 years) is coloured by her training. Her coverage of home birth, doula assistance and new-age post-birth practices (lotus birth, anyone?) is a bit lacking in this regard.

BUT I loved her discussion of sperm banks! She got some good interviews.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Johan Badenhorst

Untidy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2020

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It is a pity that such a good idea and such a well researched project ended in such an untidy result. It is written with enthusiasm, but it needed more drafts and more editing. It seems unfinished because of its untidiness.

Mrs. M. J. Silman

Amazing ..history in a nutshell

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 11, 2014

Verified Purchase

Concise ,factual and interesting.
Written so the layman can understand.
A must for all students of midwifery and obstetrics,especially medical students.

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