For almost nine decades, since their mass-resettlement to the Levant in the wake of the Genocide and First World War, the Armenian communities of Lebanon and Syria appear to have successfully maintained a distinct identity as an ethno-culturally diverse group, in spite of representing a small non-Arab and Christian minority within a very different, mostly Arab and Muslim environment. The author shows that, while in Lebanon the state has facilitated the development of an extensive and effective system of Armenian ethno-cultural preservation, in Syria the emergence of centralizing, authoritarian regimes in the 1950s and 1960s has severely damaged the autonomy and cultural diversity of the Armenian community. Since 1970, the coming to power of the Asad family has contributed to a partial recovery of Armenian ethno-cultural diversity, as the community seems to have developed some form of tacit arrangement with the regime. In Lebanon, on the other hand, the Armenian community suffered the consequences of the recurrent breakdown of the consociational arrangement that regulates public life. In both cases the survival of Armenian cultural distinctiveness seems to be connected, rather incidentally, with the continuing 'search for legitimacy' of the state.

Drawing extensively from agency records, newspaper accounts, sociological studies and court documents, Hough explores the experiences of rural white unwed mothers in Maine and Tennessee.

Dreams of pregnancy include the expectation that nine months of waiting will end with a joyous event. But, each year, a "shattered dream" occurs for thousands of couples who receive the news that their child will have a disabling condition severe enough that they may question if they are the best parents for their child. Societal expectation is that parents will raise their child or, if the condition of the child is detected prenatally, abortion is offered as an alternative. Parents who explore other options face scrutiny and, sometimes, condemnation--"lonely choices." Joanne Finnegan shares her personal experience and that of several families she interviewed who, like herself, explored options other than raising their child with a disability. Parents express with candor the overwhelming pain they felt when receiving "the news," the frustration when searching for options, the "no-win" feeling of decision making, the resolve with a final decision, and finally, life after the decision. Parent quotes also address issues such as spiritual dilemmas and interactions with friends, family, their other children, and medical professionals. Words of advice for new parents include how to build support systems and gather information, how to search for an adoptive family, and arranging the details of communication between adoptive and birth parents. Interviews with adoptive parents, poetry, and extensive resource lists complete the book. Written as a gift for other parents to help them cope with the pain and loneliness of decision making, this book will also be a valuable resource for medical professionals, adoption and social workers, counselors and spiritual advisors, and friends and family of theparents. It is a helpful as well as a deeply therapeutic book, providing a strong lesson in how to manage during this stressful time, from receiving "the news" about the baby's condition and prognosis, to weighing the factors involved in the various decisions. Should one take the baby home from the hospital? If not home, then where? Foster care, respite care, guardianship, and other forms of substitute care are mentioned. The author also examines decisions about finances and support services, family issues, finalizing an adoption plan, living with the decision, regrets, and future pregnancies.

"I am grateful to William Marsiglio for having done this book. . . The bibliography alone, wonderfully interdisciplinary, including some classics but brought right up to date, makes the book indispensible. Want to know what is known about men and birth control, men and childbirth, men and abortion? This is the place to begin your research."
--"American Journal of Sociology"

In what ways do men think about and express themselves as procreative beings? Under what circumstances do they develop paternal identities? What is their involvement with partners during the pregnancy and delivery process, and how do they feel about it?

In Procreative Man, William Marsiglio addresses these and other timely questions with an eye toward the past, present, and future. Drawing upon writings ranging from sociology to biomedicine, Marsiglio develops a novel framework for exploring men's multifaceted and gendered experiences as procreative beings. Addressing such issues as how men feel about their limited role in the abortion decision and process, how important genetic ties are for men who want to be fathers, and men's reactions to infertility, Marsiglio shows how men's roles in creating and fathering human life is embedded within a rapidly changing cultural and sociopolitical environment.

The most comprehensive analysis of men and procreation, this theoretically informed work challenges us to expand our vision of fatherhood.

Pioneering evidence is presented in this book to support the effectiveness of peer counseling for substance abuse treatment of pregnant women and their families. The introduction by Barry R. Sherman describes his personal experience as a behavioral scientist doing work in a culture other than his own. A comprehensive overview of the crack epidemic and its impact on women is followed by an up-to-date account of acupuncture in addiction treatment. The authors use the theory and principles of social learning to justify the peer counselor model known as SISTERS. Chapters include discussions of conducting culturally competent research, development and validation of the Abstinence Self-Efficacy Scale (ASES) and the Traumatic Life Events (TLE) Inventory, as well as the social support systems of drug-dependent women. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to evaluate program impact. A urine toxicology index of sobriety as well as empirical measures of psychosocial functioning and client satisfaction demonstrate sufficient success and cost-effectiveness of the program to warrant serious support by health care providers and insurance companies.

Epidemics, migration and territorial losses led to population decline in early nineteenth-century Turkey. In response, Ottoman elites began a programme of population growth. Balsoy uses previously untapped archival sources to examine these developments, arguing that these changes caused reproduction to become a political experience.

Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong SAR are among the very lowest-fertility countries in the whole world, and even China has reached fertility levels lower than those in many European countries. If these levels continue over long periods East Asia will soon face accelerating population decline in addition the changes in age distributions in such populations raise major new questions for planning of economic and social welfare. This book brings together work by noted experts on the low fertility countries of East Asia with an up-to-date analysis of trends in fertility, what we know about their determinants and consequences, the policy issues and how these are being addressed in the various countries. Its role in bringing together information on policy trends and initiatives of a pro-natalist kind adopted over recent years in these countries is extremely important, as is the fact that the discussion of these pro-natalist policies is set in the context of a thorough analysis of what has driven fertility so low in these countries. Ultra-Low Fertility in Pacific Asia is invaluable to students and scholars of East Asian public and social policy, as well as fertility studies more generally.

This book briefly reviews sociological, economic, and demographic literature pertaining to the relationship between income and fertility in developed and developing countries. He presents a conceptual framework to examine how fertility responds to changes in the distribution of household income. The analysis of data from Puerto Rico, Korea, and rural India is carefully executed, and conclusive policy implications are discussed. Originally published in 1979

Fertility, Biology, and Behavior: An Analysis of the Proximate Determinants presents the proximate determinants of natural fertility. This book discusses the biological and behavioral dimensions of human fertility that are linked to intermediate fertility variables. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the mechanisms through which socioeconomic variables influence fertility. This text then examines the absolute and relative age-specific marital fertility rates of selected populations. Other chapters consider the trends in total fertility rates of selected countries, including Colombia, Kenya, Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, France, and United States. This book discusses as well the effects of deliberate marital fertility control through contraception and induced abortion. The final chapter deals with the management of sex composition and implications for birth spacing. This book is a valuable resource for reproductive physiologists, social scientists, demographers, statisticians, biologists, and graduate students with an interest in the biological and behavioral control of human fertility.

Too often, in the debate over reproductive rights and technologies, we lose sight of the fundamental emotional and psychological issues that define the experience of pregnancy. Robin Gregg here draws on the words and stories of over thirty women to provide a first- hand perspective on pregnancy in the modern age.

In an age where a new advance in reproductive technology occurs seemingly every month, pregnancy has come to be defined by such medical procedures as prenatal screening, amniocentesis, fetal monitoring, induced labor, and cesarean sections. Public policymakers, ethicists, religious figures, and the medical establishment control the debate, drowning out the voices of women who grapple in the most immediate sense with the issues. Even feminist theorists often overlook the nuances and paradoxes of the reproductive revolution as experienced by individual, particular women.

The reader follows these thirty women as they speak about whether to become pregnant, and by what means; how to choose a health provider; what meaning they attribute to their pregnancies; and how they navigate their way through the contradictory pressures they face during pregnancy. The intimate nature of Gregg's research, consisting as it does largely of women's pregnancy narratives, lends her book a vibrancy often lacking in academic writing about reproduction.

Drawing extensively from agency records, newspaper accounts, sociological studies and court documents, Hough explores the experiences of rural white unwed mothers in Maine and Tennessee.

Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong SAR are among the very lowest-fertility countries in the whole world, and even China has reached fertility levels lower than those in many European countries. If these levels continue over long periods East Asia will soon face accelerating population decline in addition the changes in age distributions in such populations raise major new questions for planning of economic and social welfare.

This book brings together work by noted experts on the low fertility countries of East Asia with an up-to-date analysis of trends in fertility, what we know about their determinants and consequences, the policy issues and how these are being addressed in the various countries. Its role in bringing together information on policy trends and initiatives of a pro-natalist kind adopted over recent years in these countries is extremely important, as is the fact that the discussion of these pro-natalist policies is set in the context of a thorough analysis of what has driven fertility so low in these countries.

Ultra-Low Fertility in Pacific Asia is invaluable to students and scholars of East Asian public and social policy, as well as fertility studies more generally.

The sociological, medical, and historical aspects of birth control in the twentieth century have been compiled in this unique, easy-to-use, and comprehensive resource. Objectively written and international in scope, this encyclopedia covers a variety of topics: biology and anatomy, birth control methods and devices, influential people and organizations, issues and debates, religious perspectives, legal issues, perspectives from other countries. The Encyclopedia is an excellent source for students and other researchers, educators, health care professionals, and perennially high-interest topic. For students, expecially, the book will be invaluable for reports and term papers, speeches, and debates. The Encyclopedia contains more than 200 entries, a bibliography, and more than 50 photographs and charts. Entries end with a list of sources for further reading. Entries include BLAbortion BLAbstience BLBiological Methods of Contraception BLAnthony Comstock BLDalkon Shield BLMary Ware Dennett BLDepo-Provera BLFamily Planning BLGynecology BLInfanticide BLInternational Planned Parenthood Federation BLAletta Jacobs BLJudaism BLMale Contraceptives BLMenopause BLNorplant BLOral Contraceptives BLGregory Pincus BLPopulation Growth BLPoverty BLReproductive Rights BLJohn Rock BLRoe v. Wade BLRoman Catholic Church BLMargaret Higgins Sanger BLSex Education BLSexually Transmitted Diseases BLTubel Sterilization BLUnited Nations fund for Population Activities BLWorld Health Organization

A woman's childbirth care choices have a profound effect on her pregnancy and childbirth experience. Today, some pregnant women have three different options to choose from: obstetrical care and a hospital birth, a midwife-assisted birth in a hospital, and a midwife-assisted birth at an out-of-hospital birthing center. By using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this volume examines how and why 200 women made their choices, how satisfied they were with the care they received, and the impact of their choices on the availability of options in the future. Although most women in the U.S. still choose an obstetrician and a hospital setting, the number of women who choose to be assisted by a Certified Nurse Midwife is growing, with the result that this profession is acquiring new strength and jurisdiction over childbirth care.

APPRAISAL AND REVALIDATION SERIES The new Appraisal and Revalidation Series helps doctors demonstrate their competence to the standard expected by the General Medical Council and to the standard expected if they are recognised as having 'special clinical interests'. It helps doctors gather evidence of their performance for appraisal and revalidation portfolios. This fifth book in the series examines the practical ways to identify learning and service needs within the areas of substance abuse palliative care musculoskeletal conditions and prescribing practice. It also provides guidance on how to collect data to demonstrate learning competence performance and service delivery standards. All general practitioners and those with special clinical interests and primary care organisation leads will find this book essential reading. For more information on other titles in this series please click here

>Human reproduction is mediated through many technologies, both high- and low-tech. These technologies of reproduction are not experienced in isolation by most of the people who use them. However clinical, public health and social scientific research often reflects a parcelling out of reproduction into specialist areas of biomedical intervention. Studies tend to be bound to specific physiological events, technologies (particularly those that are more obviously technical or 'modern') and people - namely cis, heterosexual, white, middle-class women. Yet, with the ever-expanding horizon of reproductive technologies and the rapid development of the fertility industry, the reality is that many individuals will engage with more than one such technology at some point in their life. >Technologies of Reproduction Across the Lifecourse presents dialogue between scholars on different reproductive technologies not only from a comparative empirical perspective, arguing that operating in disciplinary silos and working from narrow ideas about RTs and their meanings can put reproductive studies in danger of missing, and thereby reproducing, the kinds of power structures that shape reproductive life.

Declining global male fertility rates has generated increased attention on male fertility in recent years. Simultaneously, individualised responsibility for health has been growing. Fertility and lifestyle have therefore become seemingly intertwined. Esmee Sinead Hanna and Brendan Gough examine men's experiences of fertility and lifestyle practices, exploring personal experiences of the role of lifestyle in the quest for conception as well as the broader promotion of 'lifestyle' within both clinical and online material as a key aspect for 'improving' male fertility. Through the exploration of male fertility and lifestyle factors and their modification we examine the growth of healthism around infertility, the role of neoliberalism within this and how this intersects with masculinity. Using a new notion of liquid masculinity, we explore the fluid nature of societal and personal perspectives on the male infertility experience. In doing so we offer new insights into the now accepted idea that 'sperm' is malleable and that fertility controllable through personal choices, despite their being limited scientific evidence for such claims.

This book offers a timely analysis of work and labor processes and how they are rapidly changing under globalization. The contributors explore traditional sectors of the U.S. and world economies - from auto to steel to agriculture - as well as work under new production arrangements, such as third world export processing zones. Many chapters analyze changing dynamics of gender, nationality, and class. The contributors explain why more intensified forms of control by the state and by capital interests are emerging under globalization. Yet they also emphasize new possibilities for labor, including new forms of organizing and power sharing in a rapidly changing economy.

This book offers a timely analysis of work and labor processes and how they are rapidly changing under globalization. The contributors explore traditional sectors of the U.S. and world economies - from auto to steel to agriculture - as well as work under new production arrangements, such as third world export processing zones. Many chapters analyze changing dynamics of gender, nationality, and class. The contributors explain why more intensified forms of control by the state and by capital interests are emerging under globalization. Yet they also emphasize new possibilities for labor, including new forms of organizing and power sharing in a rapidly changing economy.

This collection brings together the leading research in maternity care from the United States, Canada and Europe to discuss systems of care for pregnancy and childbirth. The essays focus on the practical side of "good" social science and "feminist-friendly" research. The text not only looks at maternity, but also the act of childbirth, with the goal of providing not just comparative perspectives of care, but also to integrate the differences in care within each essay for a truly international understanding of maternity care.

This book is a collection of original essays on the meaning of providing care. These essays address not only the work of caring for the elderly, but also the work of caring for children, the infirm and those with disabilities.
The essays approach the topic from an ethical standpoint and also from a more practical, feminist and sociological point of view. The main goal of this book is to re-conceive the notion of care work, beginning with steps as simple as replacing the phrase 'caregiver' with the phrase 'care worker'.

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Stories of women who mother are central to this book. The women come to mothering through birth and adoption, as birth mothers, placing mothers, adopting mothers and teen mothers. Woven between the women's narratives, the author offers reflective commentary intended to show the mothering experience in its complexity--bodily, culturally, and as the rootbed of relationship. Using phenomenological research, Bergum brings the mothering experience to light--as it is lived--exploring themes of love and pain, responsibility, belonging, choice, transformation, and quickening of the moral impulse to attend to the child. BerguM's intent is to encourage thoughtful reflection about what is learned through mothering--by women and by society--in order to create and sustain a society that is good for children and the women who mother them.

This volume is an investigation into the silence of the feminine voice in Western thought, considering the important relationship between maternity and philosophy. The author shows how maternity has often been appropriated by some male theorists and explores ways of approaching motherhood and pregnancy from a feminist perspective. Drawing on examples such as Plato's allegory of the cave, the "productive man" of Marx philosophy, Sigmund Freud's and Melanie Klein's writings on the mother and the mother-daughter relationship, and the psychoanalytic and feminist insights of Irigaray and Kristeva, she shows how terms such as denial, repression and foreclosure offer insight into the philosophical construction of the maternal body. The book also draws upon the work of Althusser and Lyotard, showing how their work bears importantly on the silence of the feminine. Throughout the text Michelle Boulous Walker questions the assumptions that silence is simply the absence of language and presents new strategies for understanding how silence operates.

Women who are dominant are more likely to have sons. Demographic studies show that more male children are born after wars, yet most people believe that their baby's sex is a matter of chance - determined by the father's sperm. Valerie Grant presents evidence that the mother's personality - which is related to female testosterone levels - can actually influence which type of sperm fertilises the egg.
Using data from human and animal studies Valerie Grant discusses the implications for human evolution, developmental psychology and reproductive biology. Her claims are controversial and the implications of her findings far reaching. Whether mothers have sons or daughters may not be a matter of chance. It may depend on which sex infant the mother is more suited to raise.

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