Deliver Me from Pain

Anesthesia and Birth in America

By Jacqueline H. Wolf

2009

First Published

3.90

Average Rating

296

Number of Pages

9H02M

Audio Length

Despite today's historically low maternal and infant mortality rates in the United States, labor continues to evoke fear among American women. Rather than embrace the natural childbirth methods promoted in the 1970s, most women welcome epidural anesthesia and even Cesarean deliveries. In Deliver Me from Pain, Jacqueline H. Wolf asks how a treatment such as obstetric anesthesia, even when it historically posed serious risk to mothers and newborns, paradoxically came to assuage women's anxiety about birth. Each chapter begins with the story of a birth, dramatically illustrating the unique practices of the era being examined. Deliver Me from Pain covers the development and use of anesthesia from ether and chloroform in the mid-nineteenth century; to amnesiacs, barbiturates, narcotics, opioids, tranquilizers, saddle blocks, spinals, and gas during the mid-twentieth century; to epidural anesthesia today. Labor pain is not merely a physiological response, but a phenomenon that mothers and physicians perceive through a historical, social, and cultural lens. Wolf examines these influences and argues that medical and lay views of labor pain and the concomitant acceptance of obstetric anesthesia have had a ripple effect, creating the conditions for acceptance of other, often unnecessary, and sometimes risky obstetric forceps, the chemical induction and augmentation of labor, episiotomy, electronic fetal monitoring, and Cesarean section. As American women make decisions about anesthesia today, Deliver Me from Pain offers them insight into how women made this choice in the past and why each generation of mothers has made dramatically different decisions.

Avg Rating

3.90

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

23%

4 STARS

52%

3 STARS

19%

2 STARS

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Jacqueline H. Wolf

Author · 3 books

Jackie Wolf is a professor in the Department of Social Medicine at Ohio University where she teaches classes in medical ethics and the history of medicine. Her research focuses on the history of birth and breastfeeding practices in the United States. For many years Jackie hosted a radio show on her local NPR affiliate, WOUB, about contemporary issues in health and medicine. Her television show, HealthVision, appeared for six years on her local PBS affiliate in southeastern Ohio and western West Virginia. Listen to her podcast, Lifespan, showcasing fascinating, personal stories about experiences with health, illness, and the healthcare system. Lifespan will debut on September 1, 2018 with stories about serious accidents, new mothers and breastfeeding, difficult diagnoses, chronic illness, end-of-life care, and more. Each episode of Lifespan will suggest how best to navigate healthcare, communicate with physicians, and cope with the aftermath of a health crisis. Subscribe to Lifespan wherever you subscribe to your favorite podcasts.