Eresia Article Citing Outer Origin in Italian
Big Think Article Republished in Italian at https://eresia.altervista.org/
Citation at end of article
Queen Victoria’s Use of Pain Relief—A First in Modern History
“Chloroform a la Reine” article for The Journal for the Study of British Cultures
https://jsbc.winter-verlag.de/article/JSBC/2024/2/5
A link and abstract of my recent article appearing in The Journal for the Study of British Cultures 31.2 (Winter 2024), 181-199.
Abstract
Though the importance of the mid-Victorian era to childbirth practices is well-established, this essay turns to the lasting effects on the perception of pain engendered by the advent of modern obstetrics that were, in turn, propelled by the discovery of anaesthesia, especially ether (1846) and chloroform (1847). Hastening this transformation were James Young Simpson’s bold advocacy for parturient pain relief and Queen Victoria’s use of the latter anodyne for her last two deliveries in 1853 and 1857. Because of anaesthesia, too, social and religious perceptions regarding the role of pain in human life were rapidly evolving. Additionally, middle- and upper-class Victorian women were characterised as having heightened ‘sensibility’, making them passive, feeble, and unable to tolerate pain, and allowing male practitioners to enter the birthing sphere more frequently to administer pain relief and ‘deliver’ women. For childbearing women, this created a paradoxical reality in which they could be liberated from pain but also required they give up much control over the birth process. The physiological relief of pain in childbirth also gave male doctors an advantage over traditional female midwives, driving many out of the profession, and encouraged the operative specialty of obstetrics to develop. Women were no longer in control of the birthing sphere, and this ushered in the beginning of the technocratic, modern, and male-driven model of childbearing.
Big Think Article Citing Outer Origin
https://bigthink.com/the-future/the-future-of-fertility/
This article, “The Future of Fertility, From Artificial Wombs to AI-Assisted IVF” by Kristin Houser cites my book, Outer Origin.
Book Review of Touched Out by Amanda Montei
Here is an excerpt. The full review appears on the Linden Review
“Dearest readers, beware. Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, and Control, by Amanda Montei, is not for the faint of heart. When you decide to read this book, be brave, as the writer has been, while gazing unflinchingly into the looking glass of what it means to be a girl, woman, wife, or mother in twenty-first century America. In her “fun-house mirror of shame,” Montei reveals dark reflections of experiences with drunken sexual assault, compromised consent, and caregiver fatigue—each outlining a long history of male entitlement entrenched in patriarchal society. Deeply important is her analysis of the continued subjugation of women, policing and ownership of the female body, and the uneven labor of childrearing—all violations, she argues, women are socialized to expect. She writes that “American motherhood has always reeked of misogyny—the expectation that women give and never receive, and the belief that whatever women do give, it will never be enough, or it will be too much.” Though equality for women has improved, Montei shows us we still have a long way to go in prioritizing the needs of women, children, and families. It is not a pleasing, put-on-a-smile read, nor is that the intention behind its writing.”
Outer Origin Review on BMJ Blog
Erika Warbinton, PhD in Psychology, wrote this book review of Outer Origin. Please follow the link to read the full text.
https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2024/08/08/artificial-wombs-are-coming-are-we-ready-for-their-effects/
The New “Obstetrical Dilemma”
There is a theory so deeply ingrained in medicine and society that it remains hard to question. It centers on the belief that because we walk on two feet and grow large-brained infants human childbirth is inherently risky and in need of intervention. It is known as the “obstetrical dilemma” (OD).
May 15, 2024There is a theory so deeply ingrained in medicine and society that it remains hard to question. It centers on the belief that because we walk on two feet and grow large-brained infants, human childbirth is inherently risky and in need of intervention. It is known as the “obstetrical dilemma” (OD). The hypothesis argues that the evolutionary trade off for bipedal motion and intelligence made women’s bodies less able to accommodate giving birth.
This has always struck me as strange—that evolution would make giving birth harder rather than easier. Biological anthropologist Holly M. Dunsworth, professor at the University of Rhode Island, must have thought something similar. In her article “There is No ‘Obstetrical Dilemma’: Towards a Braver Medicine with Fewer Childbirth Interventions” she thankfully challenges the validity of the OD.
Yet, obstetrical interventions are so mainstream it is difficult for most people to imagine childbirth as anything but a technological event. Today, approximately 98 percent of women in the United States give birth in a hospital where ubiquitous interventions are not only the norm, they’re what make up the specialty. Practitioners do what they’ve been trained to do—alter the birth process—by speeding it up and circumventing it through things like labor induction, anesthesia, and surgery.
This technocratic approach, now roughly 100 years in the making, has initiated a “new” obstetrical dilemma—not whether women can accommodate birth, but rather, should women accommodate pregnancy and give birth at all?
Absurd as that might sound, it is an outcome worth consideration. Medicine already alters and controls childbearing with increasing use of tools and techniques. Artificial womb technology (which I address in detail in Outer Origin) may eliminate the entire pregnancy and delivery altogether.
The new obstetrical dilemma must seek answers these questions: Does natural gestation and childbirth have any place in the technological age? Should we, or should we not, get rid of pregnancy and childbirth?
The answers may determine one of the most significant shifts of our time—how humans come into being.
Dunsworth, Holly M. “There is No ‘Obstetrical Dilemma’: Towards a Braver Medicine with Fewer Childbirth Interventions” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 61, no. 2 (2018): 249-263. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/701861.