Birth Crisis

by Sheila Kitzinger

[2006, London: Routledge, 191 pages, paperback.]

[Review first published in Midwifery Today Issue 80, Winter 2006, © 2006, Midwifery Today, Inc. Review by Cheryl K. Smith.]

Birth Crisis, while geared to childbirth in the UK—where midwives are care providers at most births—has a good deal of useful information for those of us in the US, as well. She elucidates what happens during birth in developed countries, where power has been wrested from women by through medicalization and technology. Passivity, drugs, machines and bullying are often the order of the day, causing women to come away from the experience traumatized and depressed. Despite this bleak picture, the author also shares various ways that mothers, midwives, doulas and partners can work together to prevent repeating it.

Reviewer Cheryl K. Smith bio