Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born Book

I'm still reading this but there are important clarifications to be made for those just starting their exploration of the birth world:

First, homebirth is NOT illegal other than in a handful of states, and there are very legitimate ways of them becoming licensed, recognized, and counted. Cassidy writes that there is no way of knowing exactly how many of these renegade illegal midwives are out there. Actually, most states have recognized license requirements and these "licensed" "direct-entry" or whatever else you want to call them, midwives practice quite within the scope of the law. In addition to that there is the CPM (Certified Professional Midwife)designation offered by NARM (North American Registry of Midwives). In my state, Medicaid is actually required to reimburse for homebirth! This is just such a glaring error and oversight that it took quite a bit of interesting factoids in the following chapters to forgive her for it. Almost.

The excessive discussion of cephalopelvic disproportion in the first chapter was another example of something that did not seem to be adequately researched. The only disproportion I saw there worth paying attention to was the amount of time spent discussing CPD, which as another reviewer mentioned, is extremely rare. As well as being virtually impossible to diagnose pre-pregnancy or labor as the pelvis changes shape and size throughout pregnancy, the birth process and based on position of the woman.

Now for the good: I definitely enjoyed reading the book and it was a comprehensive history hitting the high and low points of birth throughout the ages. I have a bit of a penchant for truly gruesome tales of medical lore, and on that front, "Birth" definitely delivered. In fact, I'm pretty sure I don't need to hear the word "craniotomy" again. Ever. And it is definitely rare to find a modern book about this topic that is as unpoliticized as this one was. Her bias leaks through only slightly, and probably not anything anyone not well versed in fairly extremely out there birth practices would even notice.