What a Blessing She Had Chloroform: The Medical and Social Response to the Pain of Childbirth from 1800 to the Present Review

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(More customer reviews)The obvious problem this author has is that if you have not given birth or are not thinking about it, you may not be that interested in the topic. Actually, Caton does quite a good job of showing how debates about use of anesthesia in childbirth tie in to larger cultural debates about medicine, progress, and the meaning of pain. In simple language, and with a good effort at giving all points of view fairly, he goes over both the scientific history of how drugs became available for childbirth and the social history of how the public (including doctors) responded. Yes, I did read it just after I had my child -- and I enjoyed it. I live in Japan where the debate over ``natural'' childbirth rages on. I think this book would make a nice gift for your intelligent friend who's having a baby (for goodness' sake, she'll get enough stuffed animals from other people).

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