Author(s): Randi Hutter Epstein

Birth & Pregnancy

Get Me Out tells the story of childbirth through the ages—the attendant fads and fables, revolutions and scandals, and, in some cases, the extreme measures taken to deliver healthy babies. The birth gurus of ancient times told pregnant women to think happy thoughts and drink red wine. They told newlyweds that simultaneous orgasms were necessary for conception. Men of the seventeenth century men labored over the invention of forceps and twentieth century doctors worked to perfect the C-section and the ultrasound. The history of childbirth is not simply a catalog of changing advice—as wacky as it may seem—but a reflection of the changing ties between expectant mothers and fathers and the ever-evolving nature of doctor-patient communication. Randi Epstein looks at the medical experiments once conducted on slave women; the controversial pain medications women have variously demanded and rejected; the impact of feminism on birthing practices; natural births versus drug-induced 'Twilight Sleep'; Lamaze and special diets; and last, but certainly not least, the promise and allure of frozen eggs and sperm shopping.