Hard Labor
Reflections of an Obstetrical Nurse
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
An obstetrical nurse who spent nearly a decade working on labor and delivery wards, a prepared childbirth instructor, a mother of two, and now a registered doula (a type of birth attendant), Susan L. Diamond has an unmatched perspective on the impact of modern medicine on the process of birth. In Hard Labor, readers learn that women in labor are routinely dehumanized by artificially established "labor curves" and confined by often unnecessary machinery. Diamond's vision is of childbirth as a natural, normal event which should be enhanced by modern medicine.
Hard Labor introduces readers to dozens of mothers, fathers, and families, and reveals the triumphs and tragedies that fill labor and delivery wards. From the sadness of death in utero to the joy of unexpectedly delivering twins, Hard Labor is a moving reading experience.
For this edition, Diamond has added a section on how she left "organized" medicine to take her message directly to women, and on her recent work as a certified doula.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In prose that is frequently riveting and always interesting, Diamond, a childbirth instructor and obstetrical nurse, details the 10 years she spent as a labor and delivery nurse. According to the author, the joyful experience of having a baby that should be the right of parents and families is frequently destroyed by a medical system that brutalizes mothers giving birth. In both military and civilian hospitals where Diamond worked, it was routine to invade a normal expectant mother's body with unnecessary IVs, fetal monitors, oxygen masks and catheters, and to perform painful episiotomies. Although these procedures are rationalized by doctors as preventative medicine, Diamond believes they are done for the convenience of physicians rather than for the well-being of delivering mothers. After struggling for years to provide pregnant women with humane prenatal nursing care, Diamond finally left the hospital system and now lobbies for home births. Doubleday Book Club alternate.
