Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank |  | Author: Randi Hutter Epstein
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Seller: strandbookstore
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 75506
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 302
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 0393064581
Dewey Decimal Number: 618.2009
EAN: 9780393064582
ASIN: 0393064581
Publication Date: January 11, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
From a witty, relentlessly inquisitive medical writer, an eye-opening history of pregnancy and birthing joys and debacles. Making and having babies—what it takes to get pregnant, stay pregnant, and deliver—has mystified women and men for the whole of human history. The birth gurus of ancient times told newlyweds that simultaneous orgasms were necessary for conception and that during pregnancy a woman should drink red wine but not too much and have sex but not too frequently. Over the last one hundred years, depending on the latest prevailing advice, women have taken morphine, practiced Lamaze, relied on ultrasound images, sampled fertility drugs, and shopped at sperm banks.
In Get Me Out, the insatiably curious Randi Hutter Epstein journeys through history, fads, and fables, and to the fringe of science, where audacious researchers have gone to extreme measures to get healthy babies out of mothers. Here is an entertaining must-read—and an enlightening celebration of human life. 22 illustrations
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 Dr. Epstein delivers! March 2, 2010
Jean E. Pouliot (Newburyport, MA United States)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
This history of the last few hundred years of childbirth trends had all the makings of an irreverent romp through the messy business of baby-making. There are moments of hilarity and charm, but author Randi Epstein is smart enough to realize that much of the history of interventions in the childbearing business is built on untimely death and horrifying suffering. The curse of Eve -- by which theologians blithely assigned the pain of childbirth to the disobedience of our prodigal mother -- is a ready reality in this age of antiseptics and ultrasounds. Women still die bearing children, perhaps not as much in the industrialized world as elsewhere. But all must deal with the evolutionary tradeoff between big-headed babies and narrow birth canals that allow upright walking.
While gently mocking old trends (male doctors were once banned from actually watching childbirth and had to grope around blindly under sheets) Epstein is almost too fair when it comes to the ironies of modern childbirth trends. Those who choose elective C-sections vie with the hardy souls who insist on birthing without meds at all. The western cultural bias toward individuality in all things vies with the proven track record of medical practitioners whose experience with thousands of mothers gives them a leg up on the less experienced. Epstein is also fair about the midwife v. obstetrician controversy, acknowledging the disdain with which men looked down on women practitioners, but realizing that the midwives were hardly the font of natural knowledge that simpler histories might suggest. Epstein also bends over backward when telling of Dr. Marion Sims, the doctor who perfected techniques for repairing vaginal fistulas by injuring slave women, then sewing them up -- all without anesthetics. Was Sims a monster or a messiah? Epstein's answer avoids an easy solution.
"Get me out" depicts the myriad ways in which western women choose to become pregnant and to give birth. It's a book that (without saying so in so many words) conveys the suffering and pain inherent in the process of bringing new human life into the world. Captivating.
So much fun! February 4, 2010
Emily Post (New York)
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
My best friend is training to be a midwife, and my other best friend is in med school to become an obgyn. Both absolutely adored this and told me I had to read it. Even I, who have no children and am not training to do anything involving childbirth, couldn't put this down. I learned so much, and laughed out loud. This should be required reading for all women. And come to think of it, men too. Absolutely fabulous.
Very Interesting February 19, 2010
M. Lane
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
I saw an ad for this book in a magazine and it sounded interesting. It is filled with the history of childbirth. I'm only a few chapters in but it was well worth the purchase so far.
 Get Me Out of Having to Finish This Book March 25, 2010
Lightman (New York)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
That's how I felt about halfway through it. Nevertheless, I pressed (no pun intended) on, and eventually made it to the end.
The author has produced a survey of childbearing, along with the myths, superstitions, practices and procedures that have accompanied it from antiquity to the present time. So what's wrong?
Somehow I can't help but feel that, with the sweeping scope of its subject matter, the book should have been much more interesting than it actually turned out to be.
What is noteworthy is the evolution of the view of women that is reflected in the approach to childbearing over time. It's remarkable to be reminded just how primitive men's perception of the female of the species was, only a couple of hundred years ago. As noted by Dr. Frederic Frigoletto, in his comments about the debate over the dangerous and ineffective medication DES, "The culture was different".
It sure was.
Anyway, that's the point that most stuck with me after exploring the weird paraphernalia, potions, and beliefs that have been associated with giving birth over the years.
The value of this book is in underscoring the message of the Virginia Slims commercial (also very strange when viewed from today's perspective), "You've come a long way, baby".
Exciting and interesting--at first February 18, 2010
Kathy Renee Richardson (Nashville, TN USA)
4 out of 9 found this review helpful
I heard an interview with the author, Randi Hutter Epstein, on NPR about this book. It sounded so interesting that I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy. The first part of the book, on historical fertility and childbirth, is interesting and intriguing but the second part of the book about sperm donation and egg freezing omits a lot of important information on those topics. And IVF is bearly even mentioned, which was odd to me. The author uses the same tone of voice when talking about dung diapers and egg freezing which irritated me because the theories, science, and research on the two subjects are worlds apart. Very disappointed with her take on "modern" fertility and childbirth.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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