Death before birth : fetal health and mortality in historical perspective / Robert Woods.
Material type:
TextPublication details: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009.Description: xvii, 294 p. : ill. ; 24 cmISBN: - 9780199542758 (hardback : alk. paper)
- 0199542759 (hardback : alk. paper)
- 618.392 WOO
| Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Loan | Moylish Library Main Collection | 618.392 WOO (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 39002100480541 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Considering its importance, the history of fetal health and mortality remains a neglected area. Medical historians have tended to focus on maternal mortality and professional conflicts between midwives rather than on the unborn, while among the social scientists demographers and epidemiologists have until recently devoted most of their attention to infants and children. Death before Birth redresses this imbalance, redirecting attention to the fetus. A study of fetal health from the seventeenth century to the present day, it is the first book to offer an historical perspective on the subject and to combine both medical history and epidemiological and demographic research, using long-term and comparative perspectives, including a strong international comparative element, across both Europe and North America. The book not only provides an account of how fetal health and the risks facing the unborn (miscarriages, abortions, stillbirths etc) have changed, it also offers an interpretation of the causes, one that focuses on the role of obstetrics and the epidemiology of maternal infections. Along the way, it pays detailed attention to a host of related themes, such as varying cultural practices in the recognition of stillbirths; the age pattern of mortality risk between conception and live birth; comparative trends in late-fetal mortality and their causes; fetal mortality and obstetric care during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries; and the contrasting approaches of the pathologists and 'social epidemiologists' to the causes of fetal death. The book concludes with a study of the 'fetus as patient', focusing on issues surrounding the legalization of abortion in many Western countries and the public health challenges of persistently high mortality in less developed countries.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction to fetal health and mortality -- Definitions, measurement, influences -- The prospects for survival from conception to childhood -- Comparative historical trends and variations -- Midwifery and fetal death -- Fetal pathology and social obstetrics -- Arguments from medical history and demography -- Induced abortion and the fetus as patient : a continuing paradox.
The history of fetal health & mortality remains a neglected area. Medical historians have focused on maternal mortality & professional conflicts between midwives, while among the social scientists demographers & epidemiologists have until recently devoted most of their attention to infants and children.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- List of Figures (p. xi)
- List of Tables (p. xiv)
- List of Abbreviations (p. xvi)
- 1 Introduction to fetal health and mortality (p. 1)
- 2 Definitions, measurement, influences (p. 14)
- Definitions (p. 14)
- Measurement (p. 27)
- Influences (p. 30)
- 3 The prospects for survival from conception to childhood (p. 35)
- Biometric analysis of infant mortality (p. 35)
- Fetal survival (p. 41)
- Concepdon-to-first-birthday survival: a model (p. 46)
- Historical implications (p. 52)
- 4 Comparative historical trends and variations (p. 56)
- Advanced states (p. 56)
- Late states (p. 69)
- Les ondoyés décédés and lesfaux mort-nés (p. 77)
- Speculations on the causes of decline and convergence since 1930 (p. 82)
- Fetal mortality in developing countries (p. 85)
- Historical estimation (p. 89)
- 5 Midwifery and fetal death (p. 102)
- Midwifery before 1750 (p. 104)
- Midwifery practice according to Dr William Smellie (p. 120)
- Midwifery after Smellie (p. 133)
- Specialist studies of fetal development and abortion: WhiteheadÆs surveys and PriestleyÆs Pathology (p. 142)
- 6 Fetal pathology and social obstetrics (p. 152)
- Diseases of the fetus and infant (p. o152)
- Fetal necropsy (p. 160)
- Social obstetrics (p. 165)
- The classification of causes (p. 178)
- 7 Arguments from medical history and demography (p. 189)
- How should fetal mortality be explained? (p. 190)
- Arguments from medical history (p. 196)
- Arguments from demography, etc. (p. 209)
- Smallpox in pregnancy (p. 213)
- Maternal syphilis (p. 232)
- Combined causes (p. 235)
- 8 Induced abortion and the fetus as patient: a continuing paradox (p. 238)
- Bibliography (p. 257)
- Index (p. 285)