Category: Birth Pregnancy & Obstetrics
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The seed and the stone: Loss in a Harare GYN clinic
Rachel ChitofuHarare, Zimbabwe In the Harare gynecology clinic, the air is thick with antiseptic and held breath. For four women today, the womb is less a sanctuary and more a ledger of what has been lost or never allowed to begin. For the first woman with late-stage HPV, a cervix surrendered to malignancy. She did…
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Couvade syndrome: Expectant fathers and pregnancy symptoms
When prospective fathers develop the same symptoms as their pregnant wives, they are said to suffer from couvade syndrome, or sympathetic pregnancy. Named after the French word couver, meaning to brood or hatch, it was described in 1865 by the British anthropologist Edward Tylor and consists of the prospective father developing physical and psychological symptoms—nausea,…
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Born with a caul: Fact and fiction
James L. FranklinChicago, Illinois, United States In the opening paragraphs of Charles Dickens’ 1850 novel David Copperfield, the titular narrator David Copperfield informs us that he was “born with a caul.” He relates further that the caul was advertised in the newspapers at the “low price” of fifteen guineas in hopes that a sea-faring buyer…
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Childbirth’s hidden revolution: The origins of obstetric forceps
Mariam BanoubMatthew HillJulius BonelloPeoria, Illinois, United States The Chamberlen family of barber-surgeons had a secret, an invention unknown to anyone else at the time. They protected this invention at all costs, even when it cost a human life. To ensure their secrecy, they always arrived at a patient’s home in a highly decorated carriage. Assistants…
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Marie de’ Medici, the multiparous queen
The Louvre Museum in Paris displays the cycle of twenty-four large-scale paintings by Peter Paul Rubens of scenes from the life of Marie de’ Medici, one of the most influential and controversial figures in French royal history. Originally commissioned by Marie for her Luxembourg palace, the cycle is now displayed in the Louvre’s Galerie Medicis.…
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That we are all bastards
Frank González-CrussíChicago, Illinois, United States The indelicate and seemingly insulting phrase that I have chosen as a title for this piece comes from Shakespeare. The great bard, in Cymbeline (II, iv), makes Posthumus say: … We are all bastards.And that most venerable man, which IDid call my father, was I know not whereWhen I was…
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Separating the inseparable: Seeing and practice makes it possible
Alan Jay SchwartzPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Conjoined twins present a rare and challenging occurrence. With an incidence of 1 per 50,000–200,000 births,1 the successful separation of conjoined twins is a phenomenal medical-surgical challenge.2 Two reasons, among others, explain why such separation has become successful: a) detailed visualization of the pathologic anatomy and b) simulating and…
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Worth the wait
Jennifer WalkerCarbondale, Illinois, United States Being a mom was something I knew I wanted from an early age, but no one thinks when you decide to start a family, that it might take years to happen. My husband and I have been together since high school. We finished college and got married in our early…
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Massaging the baby
Erin FroschCork, Ireland The centuries-old practice of baby massage has been used as early as 2670 BC in China1 to promote bonding between parent and child and demonstrate affection through physical touch, words of affirmation, and quality time. It has been passed down from generation to generation in cultures across Africa, Asia, and the South…
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Doctoring while pregnant
Katie TaylorOakland, California, United States “Are you sexually active?” “No, but you are,” a patient, one day in early spring, responds. Her timing is good, and the point is obvious. I am twenty weeks pregnant and showing, belly at two-thirds basketball. When I tell an older male patient I’m pregnant, he congratulates me, tells me…