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walkitoutCheck out the cover on this standard text on obstetrics. One positive review, from a midwife. I am not commenting on the contents of this book, which may well be excellent (dunno -- I haven't looked at it myself). I am talking _only_ about the cover design.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0838576656/
(1) Why is it human? Men don't give birth. Before you say, well, they had to distinguish the species, think hard about what _that_ says.
(2) Notice that while there is a baby on the cover, there is no mother. Whoa. They _erased_ mom from the picture entirely. Spooky.
(3) While mom has been erased, the time lapsed drawing/diagram tells you exactly what position she is giving birth in. Take a good look -- it's almost certainly semi-sitting. (Either that, or lithotomy.)
Title does get points for saying labor and birth, not labor and delivery, hence it does actually describe work done by mom, rather than focussing primarily on the birth attendants activities (which would be delivery).
Yikes.
I think I'm going to get Robbie Davis-Floyd's book. She may be crazy, but it is increasingly difficult for me to think she's wrong.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0838576656/
(1) Why is it human? Men don't give birth. Before you say, well, they had to distinguish the species, think hard about what _that_ says.
(2) Notice that while there is a baby on the cover, there is no mother. Whoa. They _erased_ mom from the picture entirely. Spooky.
(3) While mom has been erased, the time lapsed drawing/diagram tells you exactly what position she is giving birth in. Take a good look -- it's almost certainly semi-sitting. (Either that, or lithotomy.)
Title does get points for saying labor and birth, not labor and delivery, hence it does actually describe work done by mom, rather than focussing primarily on the birth attendants activities (which would be delivery).
Yikes.
I think I'm going to get Robbie Davis-Floyd's book. She may be crazy, but it is increasingly difficult for me to think she's wrong.
Re: Oh, dear.
Date: 2005-05-11 07:36 pm (UTC)If only it were something from quantum physics. In practice, it's a depiction of an ideal vertex presentation: head in the pelvis, occiput anterior -- back of the head to mom's front -- head is birthed, baby rotates in pelvis now facing to mom's right, rest of baby is born. Now that I take a better look at it, I strongly suspect this is an operative or assisted delivery, as the kids head looks more elongated after the shoulders are born. OTOH, that may just be because the perspective shifted.