Oxford Studies in International History: Lamaze : An International History read online ebook PDF, DOC, MOBI
9780199738649 0199738645 Advocated as the oldest, most natural method of childbirth, Lamaze is a practice involving breathing techniques that help a woman work through contractions (psychoprophylaxis). It has been omnipresent in American culture since the 1970s, advocated by the medical community and mothers alike. While it would seem that it emerged from the back-to-the-earth culture of the 1960s and 1970s, Paula Michaels in this book reveals a shocking history: the Lamaze method was actually invented in the Cold War Soviet Union. Michaels discovers that a French obstetrician, Fernand Lamaze, saw the technique being used in Russia in the 1950s and brought it back to his maternity ward in Paris. In order to make the method more appealing to Americans, early U.S. advocates hid its Soviet origins and were able to spread it as a grassroots movement. This work involving multiple languages and archives in a range of nations promises to be eye-opening for scholars, the medical community, and general readers alike. In setting the practice of Lamaze into its context, it will shed light on the history of medicine, the history of feminism, and Cold War history., Lamaze was once the most popular method of natural childbirth in America. Indeed, by the end of the 1970s, childbirth preparation classes were taught in nearly all American hospitals, and most classes were some variant of Lamaze. In Lamaze, historian Paula Michaels traces the rise of the Natural Childbirth and Lamaze movements in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union where, surprisingly Lamaze first emerged in the 1950s. Michaels show how, in the twentieth century, women went from being brought to bed amid friends and family in the comforting environment of the home, to being alone among strangers in an alienating hospital setting, often drugged into unconsciousness. Against this trend, advocates promoted natural childbirth and Lamaze. Michaels shows how Lamaze supporters, especially feminists and 1970s counterculturists, argued that childbirth was most empowering when experienced as naturally as possible, free of the harmful effects of powerful drugs and of the cold, sterile, male-dominated hospital experience. By the early 1980s, women in labor were awake and aware, free to enjoy the support of a loving companion at their sides, in a homier, less clinical atmosphere. But Michaels also shows how the medical profession beat down efforts to revive midwifery and home birthing, which many women would prefer. Lamaze itself dwindled in popularity, as its hallmark patterned breathing method was shown to be largely ineffective against severe labor pain. The story of Lamaze illuminates the many contentious issues that swirl around birthing practices in America and Europe. Brimming with insight, Michaels engaging history offers an instructive starting point from which we can continue to fight for humane, empowering, and safe care for all women., The Lamaze method is virtually synonymous with natural childbirth in America. In the 1970s, taking Lamaze classes was a common rite of passage to parenthood. The conscious relaxation and patterned breathing techniques touted as a natural and empowering path to the alleviation of pain in childbirth resonated with the feminist and countercultural values of the era. In Lamaze, historian Paula A. Michaels tells the surprising story of the Lamaze method from its origins in the Soviet Union in the 1940s, to its popularization in France in the 1950s, and then to its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s in the US. Michaels shows how, for different reasons, in disparate national contexts, this technique for managing the pain of childbirth without resort to drugs found a following. The Soviet government embraced this method as a panacea to childbirth pain in the face of the material shortages that followed World War II. Heated and sometimes ideologically inflected debates surrounded the Lamaze method as it moved from East to West amid the Cold War. Physicians in France sympathetic to the communist cause helped to export it across the Iron Curtain, but politics alone fails to explain why French women embraced this approach. Arriving on American shores around 1960, the Lamaze method took on new meanings. Initially it offered a path to a safer and more satisfying birth experience, but overtly political considerations came to the fore once again as feminists appropriated it as a way to resist the patriarchal authority of male obstetricians. Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, Michaels pieces together this complex and fascinating story at the crossroads of the history of politics, medicine, and women. The story of Lamaze illuminates the many contentious issues that swirl around birthing practices in America and Europe. Brimming with insight, Michaels' engaging history offers an instructive intervention in the debate about how to achieve humane, empowering, and safe maternity care for all women.
9780199738649 0199738645 Advocated as the oldest, most natural method of childbirth, Lamaze is a practice involving breathing techniques that help a woman work through contractions (psychoprophylaxis). It has been omnipresent in American culture since the 1970s, advocated by the medical community and mothers alike. While it would seem that it emerged from the back-to-the-earth culture of the 1960s and 1970s, Paula Michaels in this book reveals a shocking history: the Lamaze method was actually invented in the Cold War Soviet Union. Michaels discovers that a French obstetrician, Fernand Lamaze, saw the technique being used in Russia in the 1950s and brought it back to his maternity ward in Paris. In order to make the method more appealing to Americans, early U.S. advocates hid its Soviet origins and were able to spread it as a grassroots movement. This work involving multiple languages and archives in a range of nations promises to be eye-opening for scholars, the medical community, and general readers alike. In setting the practice of Lamaze into its context, it will shed light on the history of medicine, the history of feminism, and Cold War history., Lamaze was once the most popular method of natural childbirth in America. Indeed, by the end of the 1970s, childbirth preparation classes were taught in nearly all American hospitals, and most classes were some variant of Lamaze. In Lamaze, historian Paula Michaels traces the rise of the Natural Childbirth and Lamaze movements in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union where, surprisingly Lamaze first emerged in the 1950s. Michaels show how, in the twentieth century, women went from being brought to bed amid friends and family in the comforting environment of the home, to being alone among strangers in an alienating hospital setting, often drugged into unconsciousness. Against this trend, advocates promoted natural childbirth and Lamaze. Michaels shows how Lamaze supporters, especially feminists and 1970s counterculturists, argued that childbirth was most empowering when experienced as naturally as possible, free of the harmful effects of powerful drugs and of the cold, sterile, male-dominated hospital experience. By the early 1980s, women in labor were awake and aware, free to enjoy the support of a loving companion at their sides, in a homier, less clinical atmosphere. But Michaels also shows how the medical profession beat down efforts to revive midwifery and home birthing, which many women would prefer. Lamaze itself dwindled in popularity, as its hallmark patterned breathing method was shown to be largely ineffective against severe labor pain. The story of Lamaze illuminates the many contentious issues that swirl around birthing practices in America and Europe. Brimming with insight, Michaels engaging history offers an instructive starting point from which we can continue to fight for humane, empowering, and safe care for all women., The Lamaze method is virtually synonymous with natural childbirth in America. In the 1970s, taking Lamaze classes was a common rite of passage to parenthood. The conscious relaxation and patterned breathing techniques touted as a natural and empowering path to the alleviation of pain in childbirth resonated with the feminist and countercultural values of the era. In Lamaze, historian Paula A. Michaels tells the surprising story of the Lamaze method from its origins in the Soviet Union in the 1940s, to its popularization in France in the 1950s, and then to its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s in the US. Michaels shows how, for different reasons, in disparate national contexts, this technique for managing the pain of childbirth without resort to drugs found a following. The Soviet government embraced this method as a panacea to childbirth pain in the face of the material shortages that followed World War II. Heated and sometimes ideologically inflected debates surrounded the Lamaze method as it moved from East to West amid the Cold War. Physicians in France sympathetic to the communist cause helped to export it across the Iron Curtain, but politics alone fails to explain why French women embraced this approach. Arriving on American shores around 1960, the Lamaze method took on new meanings. Initially it offered a path to a safer and more satisfying birth experience, but overtly political considerations came to the fore once again as feminists appropriated it as a way to resist the patriarchal authority of male obstetricians. Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, Michaels pieces together this complex and fascinating story at the crossroads of the history of politics, medicine, and women. The story of Lamaze illuminates the many contentious issues that swirl around birthing practices in America and Europe. Brimming with insight, Michaels' engaging history offers an instructive intervention in the debate about how to achieve humane, empowering, and safe maternity care for all women.