Birth
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research
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The Routledge companion to philosophy of medicine. ed. / M. Solomon; J. Simon; H. Kincaid . New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2017. p. 103 - 114 (Routledge philosophy companions).
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research
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TY - CHAP
T1 - Birth
AU - Schües, Christina
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Birth, puberty, and death are live-changing events that are recognized in culturally and socially different forms. In many cultures, birth is accompanied by special rituals and ceremonies. The technology and medicine-oriented Western culture embraces only few medical and social particular rituals but has largely standardized childbirth, approaching it with a “fear-based” attitude within a discourse of risk (Davis-Floyd 1994: 24). Understanding birth as a risky transition for the mother and the child leads to fear and an urge to put it into a medical practice. Practices of birth vary concerning the decision whether birth takes place in the hospital (98% in the United States), in a birth center (about 10% in the Netherlands), or at home (about 20% in the Netherlands). And these practices differ strongly concerning the process: birth can be “natural,” labor-induced, or cesarean, experienced with pain-relief medication or without, in inherently high-risk conditions, and it can end in stillbirth. In the 19th century, the birth practice was taken from the hand of midwives and put into the hands of male physicians. Philosophers have critically debated the “natural” birth movement as well as birth under medication (Kukla 2005, 2011; Lyerly 2006; Purdy 2001).
AB - Birth, puberty, and death are live-changing events that are recognized in culturally and socially different forms. In many cultures, birth is accompanied by special rituals and ceremonies. The technology and medicine-oriented Western culture embraces only few medical and social particular rituals but has largely standardized childbirth, approaching it with a “fear-based” attitude within a discourse of risk (Davis-Floyd 1994: 24). Understanding birth as a risky transition for the mother and the child leads to fear and an urge to put it into a medical practice. Practices of birth vary concerning the decision whether birth takes place in the hospital (98% in the United States), in a birth center (about 10% in the Netherlands), or at home (about 20% in the Netherlands). And these practices differ strongly concerning the process: birth can be “natural,” labor-induced, or cesarean, experienced with pain-relief medication or without, in inherently high-risk conditions, and it can end in stillbirth. In the 19th century, the birth practice was taken from the hand of midwives and put into the hands of male physicians. Philosophers have critically debated the “natural” birth movement as well as birth under medication (Kukla 2005, 2011; Lyerly 2006; Purdy 2001).
KW - Philosophy
U2 - 10.4324/9781315720739
DO - 10.4324/9781315720739
M3 - Contributions to collected editions/anthologies
SN - 978-1-138-84679-1
T3 - Routledge philosophy companions
SP - 103
EP - 114
BT - The Routledge companion to philosophy of medicine
A2 - Solomon, M.
A2 - Simon, J.
A2 - Kincaid , H.
PB - Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
CY - New York
ER -