Reviews for Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank

The average rating for Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-01-29 00:00:00 Virginia Wilbur It's a wonder that women have survived pregnancy and childbirth since way back when and that there are those who have lived to tell the tale because once you've read this book you'll be shaking in your boots if not crossing your legs forever at some of things done in the name of « helping » a woman have a baby. The book is packed with lots of interesting information starting around medieval times when facts and figures actually started to be recorded about childbirth according to the author. It's told in a humorous as well as the "scare the ol' crap right out of you" way. You'll be going bug-eyed more than once as you flip through this one as well as scrunching your face with a few "ouches" to put it mildly. The information is presented pretty much chronologically with lots of facts and figures as backup which I appreciated. The humor of course is the author's but the facts speak for themselves so you actually learn a thing or two. There is a very detailed, multiple page bibliography at the back for those people wanting to know more or just where the author got her info. I really enjoyed the medieval information and the part from the 1980s on. The medieval part is so horribly gruesome. Some of the stories about how they "removed" babies that were stuck in the birth canal will just make you cringe as will the doctors who "operated" on slave women as a means to test out new techniques to help wealthy white women. The majority of the novel focuses on advances in the US however other countries' techniques are also mentioned. From the 1800s to the 1970s I found that the book got a bit bogged down in reciting names and dates and it sometimes felt like a chart written in paragraph form. It also lost its humor at times and became more borderline academic (which was why I couldn't give it a 5), so somewhat boring for the lay person. It picked up again though around the 1980s on especially the chapters on freebirthers (that just seems way too weird to grasp but hey if it works for some and they deliver healthy babies then why not) and buying sperm and eggs through catalogs. The author made it sound like buying a pair of expensive shoes with sometimes smarmy sales people which I don't think is quite the case for people who have to go to such extremes to have a baby. Something I found strange is that the government doesn't keep any real statistics regarding the number of babies conceived this way and regulations are quite loose in the US as to who can be a donor and who can't compared to other countries. It's almost like a new fad in the same way that the X-ray machine was or certain kinds of meds were with respect to the baby business and for many it is just that. On the whole it's a unique kind of book for someone interested in the non-text book droning account of the history of pregnancy and childbirth and I really think it can be even more appreciated if you've had children yourself or were close to someone who has. The title is just perfect too -those poor little babies, they're trying to find their way out and the big question is how much help has science really been giving them in the end? A thought provoking, overall good read and great as a gift for the expectant parent who's already got every pregnancy book under the sun.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-24 00:00:00 Roy Brown Studying up for Saturday's baby shower. So far, all I can think is how much I wish Mary Roach had written this book.