BOOK REVIEW || Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born by Tina Cassidy

This book is incredible. Tina Cassidy offers a stunningly new perspective on the evolution of healthcare, and with that, the birthing process. This book chronologically depicts how women's bodies have changed; how the interpretation and reputation of childbirth has changed and is still changing in countries all over the world; how the institution of medicine and hospitals emerged from days of home care and home births to heavily institutionalized and recently, to somewhere in between. She takes you on this global journey through time while you sneak preview the remarkable, inspiring, frightening and sometimes terrifying realities of people's lives - women's lives - as they (we) continue to give birth...each time influenced by new research and policies and supported by different resources and establishments.

Some of the procedures used during childbirth several decades ago here in North America are hard to imagine. "Twilight sleep" was one of these shocking discoveries that emerged in the early 1900's as part of a feminist movement to end all suffering in childbirth. In the early stages of labour, doctors would administer injections of morphine combined with the amnesiac scopolamine until the woman's short-term memory was far mere minutes. Her eyes were bandaged, ears stuffed with cotton and arms strapped down to ensure a blissful snooze for the entirety of the labour and birth. Amazingly, women from all over the world aspired to do this and Twilight Sleep became a symbol of women's new found freedom and power. It became the norm. Some doctors, who loved their minimal involvement in the process, actually made it mandatory. Twilight Sleep continued into the 1970's.

Being careful not to "believe everything I read", I asked my 94 year old grandmother about the birth of her first child. Her response went something like this, "Now let me see...I do recall being in some pain, yes....but it didn't last long at all. No. Eventually, I knew Jen had been born because I heard a baby crying. I think they may have showed her to me, but I don't quite remember that too well. I didn't hold her for a couple days." To her, that was normal - who am I to judge?

From a woman who has been a journalist for years, this book is not just another birth book. It is not a birth book at all. It's a book about the history of how we are born. It's a historical non-fiction and a remarkable insight into the evolution and interconnection of the human body, society, science and medicine.

You can read more about "Birth" and Tina Cassidy here: http://tinacassidy.info/. Until today, I hadn't realised that she has a like-minded blog called "The Birth Book Blog" (www.tinacassidy.blogspot.com), which I've also posted in the Menstrual Madness list of links. 

powerful words from a powerful woman

Thanks Karley for being brave enough to share these words, images and emotions and for the confidence and generosity to share them with others.  

As a woman I am in a space in time where i can collaborate three topics with pathos bounding from my uterus. True womynly wisdom, with raging anger and a sick devilish narcissist cackling on my shoulder.


We live in this society where by woman are responsible for birth control. We are to mutilate, pollute and alter our bodies to fight the natural progression of our fate all in hopes to evade sexual disappointment. Whilst attempting this, our inner woman suppresses the screaming, pounding, anger so we don't have 'inappropriate' outbursts, or in some cases, don't even have consciousness of it. We are taught to think that we can be in control of our fertility and by that, able to shut the whole process down. Narcissism at its finest. The belief that one can contrive and control oneself to an obsessional finite goal. I'm sick of it.
I just got my 5th IUD of my life. 4 months ago i had my last one taken out and promised it was my last, but today when i had my 5th IUD implanted i knew something was off. The physical procedure went fabulously, of course, they've been practicing it for decades. The entire emotional component was surprising, uprising and unacknowledged or supported by doctor. We played god, together, again. I implanted a device made of the same material they conduct electricity by into my uterus at the peak age of my fertility. I didn't even flinch at the uterine contraction, my uterus rejecting this foreign object while the doctor calmly talked to me about the potential for infertility with infection and the risks of perforation. She removed the cold metal clamps from my vagina and left me alone bleeding on the table..... ``All went well``......


Where does a woman fit in this misogynistic society while striving to be a professional? Where is the compassion for a woman and the time for her to take for herself to contemplate the choices she does have with regards to her fertility, while grasping to keep up with her counterparts, colleagues? Where did i learn that sex is how you please your partner? A commercial? At what age did i adopt the idea that physical pleasure is more important than your primal fate? So much more so that we have conjured multiple forms of detrimental birth control just so we can have that pleasure, drug ourselves mid orgasm with oxytocin to believe we are connected...."in love", but not procreate. When did i adopt the feeling of disappointment or rejection when my partner was tired and couldn't make love to me, instead of the compassion to help rejuvenate and facilitate them to restore themselves to be the best person they can because i actually love them? Why are we as a society not encouraged to think anymore, but to always accept a norm thought about by someone else?


So today i am left to contemplate, to bleed, to feel angry, to not silence myself and to start thinking for myself. For that i am thankful. For the woman inside that can speak so loud that i hear her, i am thankful. For the choices we do have, I am thankful. For the ability and invitation to share the bane of a modern professional woman who basically has everything, i am thankful, as i believe it is all relative. We will figure it out, together, and not forget to talk about it, to share, to love, and to continue to educate. And for that, I am very thankful.

1 - 2 - 3 - say "cervix"!

For anyone interested in Natural Family Planning, this site will provide a wealth of knowledge and fulfill the likely curiosity you have on how exactly your cervix is changing every month. For those of you who aren't interested, you might know people who are. Share the knowledge. And for all the rest of you, check it out anyways. I think it's fascinating to see how this part of our female reproductive system responds to the changes in our bodies each cycle and after childbirth. I assume that for many of you, these hidden body parts are probably hidden for a reason. But when it comes to your body, I don't believe ignorance is bliss. You might be surprised and perhaps enlightened by the awareness it brings you.
http://www.beautifulcervix.com/welcome/