Birthing the West
Mothers and Midwives in the Rockies and Plains
Seiten
2022
University of Nebraska Press (Verlag)
978-1-4962-2685-3 (ISBN)
University of Nebraska Press (Verlag)
978-1-4962-2685-3 (ISBN)
Birthing the West shows how mothers and midwives created an informal but dynamic health care system in the Rockies and Plains between 1860 and 1940. Over time, public health entities usurped their power, with lasting impacts for women, families, and American identity.
Reading the West Longlist for Nonfiction
Childbirth defines families, communities, and nations. In Birthing the West, Jennifer J. Hill fills the silences around historical reproduction with copious new evidence and an enticing narrative, describing a process of settlement in the American West that depended on the nurturing connections of reproductive caregivers and the authority of mothers over birth.
Economic and cultural development depended on childbirth. Hill’s expanded vision suggests that the mantra of cattle drives and military campaigns leaves out essential events and falls far short of an accurate representation of American expansion. The picture that emerges in Birthing the West presents a more complete understanding of the American West: no less moving or engaging than the typical stories of extraction and exploration but concurrently intriguing and complex.
Birthing the West unearths the woman-centric practice of childbirth across Montana, the Dakotas, and Wyoming, a region known as a death zone for pregnant women and their infants. As public health entities struggled to establish authority over its isolated inhabitants, they collaborated with physicians, eroding the power and control of mothers and midwives. The transition from home to hospital and from midwife to doctor created a dramatic shift in the intimately personal act of birth.
Reading the West Longlist for Nonfiction
Childbirth defines families, communities, and nations. In Birthing the West, Jennifer J. Hill fills the silences around historical reproduction with copious new evidence and an enticing narrative, describing a process of settlement in the American West that depended on the nurturing connections of reproductive caregivers and the authority of mothers over birth.
Economic and cultural development depended on childbirth. Hill’s expanded vision suggests that the mantra of cattle drives and military campaigns leaves out essential events and falls far short of an accurate representation of American expansion. The picture that emerges in Birthing the West presents a more complete understanding of the American West: no less moving or engaging than the typical stories of extraction and exploration but concurrently intriguing and complex.
Birthing the West unearths the woman-centric practice of childbirth across Montana, the Dakotas, and Wyoming, a region known as a death zone for pregnant women and their infants. As public health entities struggled to establish authority over its isolated inhabitants, they collaborated with physicians, eroding the power and control of mothers and midwives. The transition from home to hospital and from midwife to doctor created a dramatic shift in the intimately personal act of birth.
Jennifer J. Hill is an assistant teaching professor of American studies at Montana State University. She serves as the executive director of the Women’s Reproductive History Alliance, a digital museum dedicated to educating the public on reproductive history.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Birth in the Big Open
2. The Expertise of Women
3. Midwives among Us
4. The Practice of Birth
5. Death in the West
6. Birth Goes Public
7. Maternity Homes and Motherhood
Conclusion: What We Lost
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
| Erscheinungsdatum | 31.01.2022 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 30 photographs, 2 illustrations, 1 map, index |
| Verlagsort | Lincoln |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Allgemeines / Lexika |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| Medizin / Pharmazie ► Gesundheitswesen | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-4962-2685-2 / 1496226852 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-4962-2685-3 / 9781496226853 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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