A History of Western Medicine, Labor, and Birth

Abstract

There is an abundant literature on the history and medicalization of birth and reproduction, from conception, to the maternal body, to the labors of birth itself (see Davis-Floyd and Sargent 1997; Devries et al. 2001; Ehrenreich and English 1973; Graham and Oakley 1981; Martin 1992; Rapp 2000; Trevathan 1997). Much of this research examines the cultural-social dimensions of medicine and women's bodies within the biomedical model. But there is a complex history that has shaped how western medicine views pregnancy, labor and the maternal body that this chapter aims to examine through a chronological history of childbirth and labor in the last three hundred years that has put in place a static and potentially problematic medicalized model of birth, which, as western medicine permeates all parts of the world is becoming globally accepted. This chapter focuses primarily on the United States, recognizing occasionally its connection with Europe.