This book reexamines the "standard" procedures used to "manage" American childbirth, identifying non-evidence-based obstetric interventions as rituals enacting core values of the American technocracy. This new edition brings together new data with Davis-Floyd's insights into the ritualization and models of labor and birth.
This classic book, first published in 1992 and again in 2003, has inspired three generations of childbearing people, birth activists and researchers, and birth practitioners-midwives, doulas, nurses, and obstetricians-to take a fresh look at the "standard procedures" that are routinely used to "manage" American childbirth. It was the first book to identify these non-evidence-based obstetric interventions as rituals that enact and transmit the core values of the American technocracy, thereby answering the pressing question of why these interventions continue to be performed despite all evidence to the contrary. This third edition brings together Davis-Floyd's insights into the intense ritualization of labor and birth and the technocratic, humanistic, and holistic models of birth with new data collected in recent years.
"A magnificent contribution to our understanding of birthing in this country."
--Emily Martin, author of The Woman in the Body
"Davis-Floyd is a respectful listener who has encouraged her subjects to speak honestly about a complex experience. Consequently, even skeptical readers of the fascinating stories she has gathered should be prompted to reflect on the meaning of their own or their partners' experience of birth?I admire, without reservation, the generous, critical, passionate spirit that animates this book." -Sara Ruddick, New York Times Book Review
"Davis-Floyd has done an excellent job of demonstrating the linkages between American core values concerning technology and scientific expertise and prevailing obstetric practices. I especially value her use of women's voices to convey the essence of their delivery experiences."
--Carolyn Sargent, author of Maternity, Medicine, and Power
