BIRTH CONTROL: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood, by Allison YarrowSeventeen years ago, while pregnant with twins, I was hospitalized for pre-eclampsia before undergoing a cesarean delivery days later.
After delivery, I was left alone and shivering in a separate room for easily an hour, without anyone to ask when I could hold my newborn children.
At the time, I was only grateful we were all healthy; the submission and alienation the process engendered always seemed beside the point.
Yarrow systemically makes the case that the dominant methods of childbirth in America are the clumsy evolution of earlier medical practices that were designed to protect the privilege, status and convenience of 20th-century male doctors.
Yarrow convincingly recasts this country’s maternal health care system as needlessly dehumanizing, prioritizing expediency and profit over the best interests of a population of women rendered vulnerable.
Persons:
Allison Yarrow, Yarrow, “, surreptitious snippings
Organizations:
Labor
Locations:
America