This book traces the history of formative, enduring concepts, foundational in the development of the health disciplines. It explores existing literature, and subsequent contested applications. Feminist legacies are discussed with a clear message that early sociological and anthropological theories and debates remain valuable to scholars today. Chapters cover historical events and cultural practices from the standpoint of 'difference'; formulate theories about the emergence of social issues and problems and discuss health and illness in light of cultural values and practices, social conditions, embodiment and emotions. This collection will be of great value to scholars of biomedicine, health and gender.

Pregnancy and Birth: A Reference Handbook provides students with information too often ignored in sex education-on what pregnancy and birth are, have been, and can be as transformative personal and social events. Pregnancy and Birth: A Reference Handbook is a woman-centered reference book on pregnancy and childbirth in the United States. The medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth is a theme; however, primary emphasis is on the historical and contemporary significance of alternatives to medicalization provided by the Midwifery Model of Care and how that can improve outcomes for all, but especially underserved women. The volume opens with a background and history of the topic, followed by a chapter on related problems, controversies, and solutions. A Perspectives chapter contains essays from a variety of individuals who are invested in the topic of pregnancy and birth. The remaining chapters provide students with additional information, such as profiles, data and documents, resources, a chronology, and a glossary. This book is accessible to high school and college-level researchers, as well as general-interest readers curious about the topic. Introduces readers to a perspective on U.S. pregnancy and childbirth that is woman-centered Centers the historical and contemporary significance of midwives and the Midwives Model of Care Illuminates the strength of U.S obstetric dominance by reporting legislative and policy barriers limiting women's access to midwifery care Highlights both the racial-ethnic disparities across the birth provider workforce and racial-ethnic disparities in U.S. birth outcomes Highlights regional disparities, with specific attention to rural communities, in U.S. birth outcomes

We are all citizens of the Biomedical Empire, though few of us know it, and even fewer understand the extent of its power. In this book, Barbara Katz Rothman clarifies that critiques of biopower and the "medical industrial complex" have not gone far enough, and asserts that the medical industry is nothing short of an imperial power. Factors as fundamental as one's citizenship and sex identity—drivers of our access to basic goods and services—rely on approval and legitimation by biomedicine. Moreover, a vast and powerful global market has risen up around the empire, making it one of the largest economic forces in the world. Katz Rothman shows that biomedicine has the key elements of an imperial power: economic leverage, the faith of its citizens, and governmental rule. She investigates the Western colonial underpinnings of the empire and its rapid intrusion into everyday life, focusing on the realms of birth and death. This provides her with a powerful vantage point from which to critically examine the current moment, when the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the power structures of the empire in unprecedented ways while sparking the most visible resistance it has ever seen.

Facing the polar forces of an epidemic of cesarean sections and epidurals and home-like labor rooms, American birth is in transition. Caught between the most extreme medicalization -- best seen in a cesarean section rate of nearly 30 percent -- and a rhetoric of women's "choices" and "the natural," women and their midwives, doulas, obstetricians, and nurses labor on. "Laboring On" offers the voices of all of these practitioners, all women trying to help women, as they struggle with this increasingly split vision of birth.
Updating Barbara Katz Rothman's now-classic" In Labor," the first feminist sociological analysis of birth in the United States, "Laboring On" gives a comprehensive picture of the ever-changing American birth practices and often conflicting visions of birth practitioners. The authors deftly weave compelling accounts of birth work, by midwives, doulas, obstetricians, and nurses, into the larger sociohistorical context of health care practices and activism and offer provocative arguments about the current state of affairs and the future of birth in America.

Facing the polar forces of an epidemic of cesarean sections and epidurals and home-like labor rooms, American birth is in transition. Caught between the most extreme medicalization -- best seen in a cesarean section rate of nearly 30 percent -- and a rhetoric of women's "choices" and "the natural," women and their midwives, doulas, obstetricians, and nurses labor on. "Laboring On" offers the voices of all of these practitioners, all women trying to help women, as they struggle with this increasingly split vision of birth.
Updating Barbara Katz Rothman's now-classic" In Labor," the first feminist sociological analysis of birth in the United States, "Laboring On" gives a comprehensive picture of the ever-changing American birth practices and often conflicting visions of birth practitioners. The authors deftly weave compelling accounts of birth work, by midwives, doulas, obstetricians, and nurses, into the larger sociohistorical context of health care practices and activism and offer provocative arguments about the current state of affairs and the future of birth in America.

This is a wide range of material relating to childbirth gathered in one volume. From witches, wet nurses and lullabies to postpartum depression and bonding, leading authorities in various disciplines explore the topic of childbirth and related phenomena. Basic subjects covered are birth and demographics, history, political science, anthropology, ethics and psychology. Also discussed are the different organizations and support groups that have emerged out of the childbirth and reproductive rights movements in the US since the late 1950s.

There are people dedicated to improving the way we eat, and people dedicated to improving the way we give birth. A Bun in the Oven is the first comparison of these two social movements. The food movement has seemingly exploded, but little has changed in the diet of most Americans. And while there's talk of improving the childbirth experience, most births happen in large hospitals, about a third result in C-sections, and the US does not fare well in infant or maternal outcomes. In A Bun in the Oven Barbara Katz Rothman traces the food and the birth movements through three major phases over the course of the 20th century in the United States: from the early 20th century era of scientific management; through to the consumerism of Post World War II with its 'turn to the French' in making things gracious; to the late 20th century counter-culture midwives and counter-cuisine cooks. The book explores the tension throughout all of these eras between the industrial demands of mass-management and profit-making, and the social movements-composed largely of women coming together from very different feminist sensibilities-which are working to expose the harmful consequences of industrialization, and make birth and food both meaningful and healthy. Katz Rothman, an internationally recognized sociologist named 'midwife to the movement' by the Midwives Alliance of North America, turns her attention to the lessons to be learned from the food movement, and the parallel forces shaping both of these consumer-based social movements. In both movements, issues of the natural, the authentic, and the importance of 'meaningful' and 'personal' experiences get balanced against discussions of what is sensible, convenient and safe. And both movements operate in a context of commercial and corporate interests, which places profit and efficiency above individual experiences and outcomes. A Bun in the Oven brings new insight into the relationship between our most intimate, personal experiences, the industries that control them, and the social movements that resist the industrialization of life and seek to birth change.

Our understandings of addiction are rapidly changing. New technologies and biomedical treatments are reconfiguring addiction as a brain disease, and the concept of "addiction" is expanding to cover an ever widening array of substances and behaviours, from food to shopping. This volume looks critically at how addiction has been framed historically, how it is characterized and understood through contemporary cultural representations, how new treatments and technologies are reconfiguring addiction, and how "addiction" is being expanded beyond illicit drugs and alcohol to explain phenomena such as "excessive" eating and gambling and the exponential rise in prescription narcotic use. It also examines how medical, behavioural and punitive frameworks come together to shape and control "addicts." Featuring the work of several up-and-coming scholars working to deepen theoretical perspectives on addiction and its relationship to social control and deviance, this volume fills a gap in addiction studies by offering critical perspectives that interrogate and challenge traditional and/or mainstream understandings of addiction.

This volume addresses the need for sociological insight through empirically rich, theoretically innovative chapters that range across methods, traditions and foci in order to cast new light on the place, role and impact of neuroscience.

This volume addresses this need for sociological insight through empirically rich, theoretically innovative chapters that range across methods, traditions and foci in order to cast new light on the place, role and impact of neuroscience.

Diagnosis is central to medical practice, medical knowledge and research, medicalization dynamics, and health and illness experience. Embedded in social relations, diagnoses reflect and shape social dynamics and cultural concerns. Diagnoses are integral to resource allocation, form the basis for identities, and may become a focal point of turf battles and contested authority. Some diagnoses are willingly embraced, whereas others are strenuously resisted. Some diagnoses come and go as fashions; others persist. A sociological approach to diagnosis therefore occupies a complex intersection of diverse subfields including medical sociology, sociology of knowledge, mental health, deviance, social control, sociology of science, social movements, the body, sexualities, gender, and health and illness. This volume explores the breadth of diagnosis and diagnoses through empirical reports, conceptual work, and theoretical statements from diverse perspectives. Reflecting the multi-faceted nature of the emerging field, the book is arranged in five sections: Frameworks, Context, Contestation, Identity, and Social Control. Sociology of Diagnosis thus provides both a starting point for discussion and means with which to organize the nascent conceptual landscape.

This volume deals with the topic of health inequalities and health disparities. The volume is divided into five sections. The first section includes an introductory look at the issue of health care inequalities and disparities and also an introduction to the volume. One of the backdrops to this topic in the United States was The National Healthcare Disparities Report and its focus on the ability of Americans to access health care and variation in the quality of care. Disparities related to socioeconomic status were included, as were disparities linked to race and ethnicity and the report also tried to explore the relationship between race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position, as explained in more detail in the first article in the book. The second article discusses a newer overall approach to issues related to health inequalities and health disparities.
The remaining four sections of the book address more specific topics relating to inequalities and disparities. The second section examines racial and ethnic inequalities and disparities. The third section includes articles that address the issue from the perspective of research about health care providers and health care facilities. The last two sections of the book focus on consumers and topics of health care disparities, with Section 4 focused on issues related to substance abuse, mental health and related concerns. Section 5 includes articles looking at issues of vulnerable women, women with breast cancer and people with colorectal cancer.
Inequalities and Disparities in Health Care and Health is important reading for medical sociologists and people working in other social science disciplines studying health-related issues.The volume also provides vital information for health services researchers, policy analysts and public health researchers.
* A great resource for health services researchers, policy analysts and public health researchers
* An in-depth look at bioethics, focussing on health inequalities and disparities

This book traces the history of formative, enduring concepts, foundational in the development of the health disciplines. It explores existing literature, and subsequent contested applications. Feminist legacies are discussed with a clear message that early sociological and anthropological theories and debates remain valuable to scholars today. Chapters cover historical events and cultural practices from the standpoint of 'difference'; formulate theories about the emergence of social issues and problems and discuss health and illness in light of cultural values and practices, social conditions, embodiment and emotions. This collection will be of great value to scholars of biomedicine, health and gender.

Medical Sociology is the among the largest and first subdisciplines in Sociology. It is an area of ongoing work, advancing theory, method and our substantive understanding of social life. This series brings together the newest issues and most current concerns in Medical Sociology, in an ongoing collection of edited volumes. Each volume is edited by a medical sociologist with a particular expertise, bringing together contributions from sociologists working in different settings and nations, exploring one particular advance in Medical Sociology.

There are people dedicated to improving the way we eat, and people dedicated to improving the way we give birth. A Bun in the Oven is the first comparison of these two social movements. The food movement has seemingly exploded, but little has changed in the diet of most Americans. And while there's talk of improving the childbirth experience, most births happen in large hospitals, about a third result in C-sections, and the US does not fare well in infant or maternal outcomes. In A Bun in the Oven Barbara Katz Rothman traces the food and the birth movements through three major phases over the course of the 20th century in the United States: from the early 20th century era of scientific management; through to the consumerism of Post World War II with its 'turn to the French' in making things gracious; to the late 20th century counter-culture midwives and counter-cuisine cooks. The book explores the tension throughout all of these eras between the industrial demands of mass-management and profit-making, and the social movements-composed largely of women coming together from very different feminist sensibilities-which are working to expose the harmful consequences of industrialization, and make birth and food both meaningful and healthy. Katz Rothman, an internationally recognized sociologist named 'midwife to the movement' by the Midwives Alliance of North America, turns her attention to the lessons to be learned from the food movement, and the parallel forces shaping both of these consumer-based social movements. In both movements, issues of the natural, the authentic, and the importance of 'meaningful' and 'personal' experiences get balanced against discussions of what is sensible, convenient and safe. And both movements operate in a context of commercial and corporate interests, which places profit and efficiency above individual experiences and outcomes. A Bun in the Oven brings new insight into the relationship between our most intimate, personal experiences, the industries that control them, and the social movements that resist the industrialization of life and seek to birth change.

The much heralded "completion" of the human genome project in the year 2000 raises urgent questions: Do we now have a map of who we are? How will we control the uses of the potentially healing but also likely destructive and highly marketable information genetics brings us? Using her own life as well as her research, Barbara Katz Rothman presents an impassioned defense for the theory that humans are not "ready made from the factory", as one recent popular book on genetics put it, but social beings who grow, mature, and learn who they are.

How Amniocentesis Changes the Experience of Motherhood

As more and more women are having children when they are over thirty, amniocentesis is becoming a routine part of prenatal care. In this groundbreaking book, Barbara Katz Rothman shows how this simple procedure can radically alter the way we think about childbirth and parenthood, forcing us to confront agonizing dilemnas: What do you do if there is a "problem" with the fetus? What kind of support is available if you decide to raise a handicapped child? How can you come to terms with the termination of an wanted pregnancy? Drawing on the experience of over 120 women and a wealth of expert testimony, Rothman's important book is a must for anyone thinking of having a child.

For this edition, Rothman has written a new introduction on the most recent technological advances and the personal and social issues they raise. She has also included two new appendixes: "Using Earlier Tests" on early amniocentesis and chonionic villus sampling and "Maternal Serum Alpha Protein Testing."

"What a wonderful mix of scholarship and feeling! With insight and symphathy, Barbara Katz Rothman shows us how the new techniques for diagnosing fetal health problems confront pregnant women with new burdens and responsibilities. Anyone who thinks that prenatal diagnosis is liberating for women needs to read this book." —Ruth Hubbard, Harvard University

Weaving together the sociological, the historical, and the personal, Barbara Katz Rothman looks at the contemporary American family through the lens of race, race through the lens of adoption, and all-race, family, and adoption-within the context of the changing meanings of motherhood.

Recipient of the Jesse Bernard Award of the American Sociological Association. "Rereading Recreating Motherhood should be high up on the agenda of everyone interested in women's health."-Women & Health "Written with force, grace and great humanity. Barbara Katz Rothman's disciplined, informed, passionately careful thinking on gender and genetics makes Recreating Motherhood a sound, wise guide both to the politics of motherhood and to private moral decision-making. This is an invaluable book."-Ursula K. Le Guin "This wonderful and classic feminist text has been beautifully revised for the new millennium. Rothman's incisive analysis of the culture of motherhood is a must read for scholars, activists, policy makers, students, parents, parents-to-be-for anyone interested in procreative and family issues. I rarely say so about sociological writing: you won't be able to put it down " -Wendy Simonds, author of Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic "A lively, sensible work, connecting different aspects of women's reproductive freedom, exploring the various assaults against those freedoms, and positing feminist alternatives in a hopeful and practical manner."-Robin Morgan, author of Word of a Woman: Feminist Dispatches Selling "genetically gifted" human eggs on the free market for a hefty price. Birth mothers reclaiming their children. Fetal rights. Surrogacy. Nannygate. All are instances of news stories with which we have become familiar in recent years. Yet these issues are often regarded as distinct problems. Barbara Katz Rothman demonstrates how they form a complex whole that demands of us in response a coherent vision-a woman-centered, class-sensitive way of understanding motherhood and the family. Her book shows clearly that the real needs of mother, father, and children have been swept aside in an attempt to reduce the complex process of human reproduction to a clinical event that can be controlled by medical technology. Rothman suggests ways to accomplish social and legal changes that would allow technological advances and evolving gender roles to affirm the mother-child relationship without cost to women's identities. In this new edition of a classic work, Rothman shows how this material is key in understanding the family, not just motherhood. A new chapter, "Reflections on a Decade," explores how new reproductive technologies combine with new marketing and new genetics to pose troubling social questions. Barbara Katz Rothman is a professor of sociology at the City University of New York. She is the author of many books, including Genetic Maps and Human Imaginations: The Limits of Science in Understanding Who We Are.

Scientists are racing to unravel the code of life in our DNA sequences. But once we know the code, will we know what life means? Will we know what to do with the powerful — healing, destructive, and marketable — information we will have? Barbara Katz Rothman's warm, learned, passionate, and humorous voice is just the one we need to guide us through some of the most loaded issues and technologies of our time — ones that bear on the most intimate aspects of our lives. Her astute observations about the new genetics are combined with personal reflections: about raising a black child; the risks of cancer; midwives and pregnancy; the social web into which we are born; motherhood; time, growth, chance, and all the indefinable things that make us human. She helps us to think about the place of genetic science in our own lives, its role in our social world, and how we choose to think about human life itself. A genetic map will take us places, but we need an imagination to see the relationship between DNA and public policy, between genes and the society we live in, and to understand why human life can't be reduced to genetics. Rothman inspires that imagination, in a book that is essential reading.