Aug 19 2009
Birth Day ~ Book Review
Birth Day by Dr Mark Sloan is an interesting book about childbirth. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it when I started, but found myself very intrigued and captivated as I got deeper into the book.
Dr. Sloan is a pediatrician and in the book Birth Day he explores the science and the history behind childbirth. I was quite amazed at some of the interesting history behind our current state of childbirth. I also like Dr. Sloan’s voice in the book. He’s not only a man, and a doctor, but frequently speaks of his early experiences with childbirth, not only as a training physician but as a father.
The history of childbirth is quite interesting, and the changes from it being generally done at home with female assistance to almost always in the hospital as it is today came from some surprising sources. The women’s movement not only changed the workplace, but the way we give birth as well.
Options for pain relief is covered quite nicely in this book, and the history of pain relief during childbirth has a pretty long and sometimes sordid history. Did you know that chloroform was used to help the Queen of England give birth ~ much to the chagrin of most of the medical establishment of the time.
This book is filled with interesting information, it also features a light hearted writing style that makes the information easy to process and read. The personal anecdotes really help to bring messages home, and make the entire book much more relatable.
If you are interested in childbirth I recommend reading this book. I certainly learned a ton while I was reading it.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a4746d95-8d56-4c16-8379-14a04698eace)
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Thank you for your review on birth day. The process of child birth has so many details that you never think about until you actually go through it. I also am very interested in how it was approached throughout history. Using chloroform seems pretty dangerous, I am going to read the book just to find out more fun facts like this one. If I was a women who was about to hav a baby, I would definately read Birth Day.
This is such a great blog – so informative and honest! I added a Natural Birth community on my website, http://www.shareWIK.com (share What I Know) and would love your input! ShareWIK is an online group bringing together people of all areas of expertise so that they can share what they know. Keep up the great work, and we would love to hear from you!