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Our bodies, ourselves: pregnancy and birth.

Article Excerpt
From the time the first edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves was published in 1970, it has provided indispensable information on women's health and sexuality. With each new edition, the authors and editors have struggled to include an ever-growing amount of health information without sacrificing the personal stories and social analysis of health care that are the hallmarks of the book. Looking for an opportunity to cover certain health concerns in greater depth, we recently produced two new "single topic" books: Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause, published in 2006, and Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth. This article is based on excerpts from the latter book, which came out in March, 2008.

Books about pregnancy and birth abound, so why did we write another one? Primarily because we believe that the maternity care many women receive does not always serve the best interests of women, babies, and families. Pregnancy and birth are normal, healthy processes for most women, the vast majority of whom have healthy pregnancies and babies. Yet childbirth...