1. Objectifs

Intentions :
Retracer l’histoire de l’accouchement et de la naissance au Canada, de 1900 à 1950. « While my focus is on regular medical practice, I have attempted to introduce the experience of other birthing models (whether First Nations or midwifery) to remind the reader that there is always another way of doing things - even on having a baby. » (p. 18)

2. Méthode

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

« Maternalism, a belief that mothering is central to the lives of women, was an ideology that most Canadians shared with others in Western society in the first half of the twentieth century... But before a woman could become a mother, she had to give birth. This was and is the most fundamental of creative acts. This book is a history of that process in Canada from 1900 to 1950. These were the years in which the medicalization of childbirth, begun in the late nineteenth century, intensified. As a consequence, this book focuses on the regular medical profession, and the views of its members about the nature of birthing, and, even more significant for the women concerned, on the way in which medical practioners treated their patients. As such, the book is part of a wider historiography on the medical treatment of women, the history of childbirth, and gender and science. » (quatrième de couverture)