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Tarfumes.com - Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care
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List Price: $26.00
Our Price: $11.91
Your Save: $ 14.09 ( 54% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Da Capo Lifelong Books
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.198200973
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Da Capo Lifelong Books
Manufacturer: Da Capo Lifelong Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2007-06-01
Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
Studio: Da Capo Lifelong Books
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Editorial Reviews:
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In the United States, more than half the women who give birth are given drugs to induce or speed up labor; for nearly a third of mothers, childbirth is major surgery - the cesarean section. For women who want an alternative, choice is often unavailable: Midwives are sometimes inaccessible; in eleven states they are illegal. In one of those states, even birthing centers are outlawed.When did birth become an emergency instead of an emergence? Since when is normal, physiological birth a crime? A groundbreaking journalistic narrative, Pushed presents the complete picture of maternity care in America. Crisscrossing the country to report what women really experience during childbirth, Jennifer Block witnessed several births - from a planned cesarean to an underground home birth. Against this backdrop, Block investigates whether routine C-sections, inductions, and epidurals equal medical progress. She examines childbirth as a reproductive rights issue: Do women have the right to an optimal birth experience? If so, is that right being upheld? Block's research and experience reveal in vivid detail that while emergency obstetric care is essential, there is compelling evidence that we are overusing medical technology at the expense of maternal and infant health: Either women's bodies are failing, or the system is failing women.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Important
Comment: If you're pregnant and can only read one book about childbirth, it should be this one. Written in an engaging but pragmatic journalistic style, this is a fabulously researched look at what has gone wrong in hospital delivery rooms, leading to a 33 percent C-section rate in America today.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A must read for any pregnant woman!! Real eye opener!!
Comment: This is a must read for any pregnant woman. It is a real eye opener into the medical practice and the reasoning behind many things that occur during child birth.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Unique Insight Into America's Maternity Care
Comment: Having read the book and attended a book reading by the author, I was most amazed by this book because Ms. Block is not a mother. As a non-mother, outside of the birth community, she was able to offer unique insight that other authors of wonderful books missed. For instance, Ms. Block notes that the "back alley births" have replaced "back alley abortions" in many communities. Safe, natural childbirth is legally unavailable to women with previous c-sections, multiple births, and other risk factors in certain states with harsh laws against midwifery care. I also have summarized the talk she gave at Georgetown University on March 15, 2008 at http://mothersrights.blogspot.com/2008/03/talk-by-author-of-pushed.html.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Scary But Necessary Reading
Comment: My first (and only) birth was quite horrifying. After being induced because my contractions slowed the contractions became very painful, after 18 hours I asked for an epidural. The resident put the tube in wrong and the epidural didn't work properly, immobilizing my legs, but leaving the horrific contractions. After 30 hours the midwife broke my bag of waters and after 36 hours I had a fever and my son's heart rate was becoming erratic. They put me in for an emergency C-section, but gave the anesthesia through the same tube as the epidural. Well, it didn't work properly, and I felt almost everything during the 45 minute c-section, so long because my son was stuck and the doctor stopped midway to do a "cease and assess" and to formally complain about the overseeing anesthesiologist.
So! Bad things that you are totally unprepared for can happen! And while this book IS completely biased, it is better to know about all of the possibilities and be mentally prepared for them rather than be blindsided by them. If you are an intelligent woman/couple you can take from this book what it offers: perspective. It will also help you understand what you may and may not want to do during those "informed decision" times they tell you so much about during birthing classes. Yeah, you make the decisions, you can always ask for more information if you need it. Well, what they don't tell you is that if you ask your doctor, your doctor is biased, so if you don't do your own research going in you will do whatever your doctor says because it is the only opinion you have, besides your own, which seems meaningless and naive next to a doctor's recommendation.
Read it, be scared for a little while, and then know you are going into your birth with more information. I am pregnant again, I found that this book helped me decide what kind of physician I wanted to go with. My husband is very against home birth, and I understand his fears, he was traumatized by the first birth, too, he feels that we should still be in a hospital "just in case." So, this book helped me choose a doctor that understands that I want a "home birth" in a hospital. I hope it will help you, too.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Every expecting mother needs to read this book!
Comment: This is the most important book that any expecting mother could read. This book reveals the truth about how hospital birth is not the best and safest way to have a baby. Mothers need to know that they do have a choice and that their pregnancy does not have to be treated as a disease. This book is eye-opening and empowering to all women whether pregnant or not.
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