What a Blessing She Had Chloroform: The Medical and Social Response to the Pain of Childbirth from 1800 to the Present (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300075977)

This book describes in fascinating detail the history of the use of anesthesia in childbirth and in so doing offers a unique perspective on the interaction between medical science and social values. Dr. Donald Caton traces the responses of physicians and their patients to the pain of childbirth from the popularization of anesthesia to the natural childbirth movement and beyond. He finds that physicians discovered what could be done to manage pain, and patients decided what would be done. Dr. Caton discusses how nineteenth-century physicians began to think and act like scientists; how people learned to reject the belief that pain and suffering are inevitable components of life; and how a later generation came to think that pain may have important functions for the individual and society. Finally he shows the extent to which cultural and social values have influenced "scientific" medical decisions.

Author: Donald Caton, Caton
ISBN-10: 0300075979
ISBN-13: 9780300075977
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 06/01/1999
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.09lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.88w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 05/15/1999 pg. 117
Booklist 05/15/1999 pg. 1654
New York Times 10/31/1999 pg. 20