Tag Archives: Obstetrics

A history of breastfeeding and wet nurses

January 31, 2018

Nursan Cinar Sumeyra Topal Sinem Yalnizoglu Caka Sakarya, Turkey   The bond established with the milk never breaks off even if years passed. Wet nurse’s own son (at left) and milk son. Photo by Sümeyra Topal. Breastfeeding has been vital to life since the beginning of humanity. For infants who are unable to get this […]

“Sara, Bill, Kristine, … you’re pregnant!” Gestational surrogacy, biomedicalized bodies and reconceptualizations of motherhood

November 20, 2017

Eva-Sabine Zehelein Frankfurt, Germany   The day we left the hospital, a therapist from the perinatal loss department presented us with two death certificates and asked us if we wanted the bodies for a burial. . . . We were being taken out the back like the trash, sparing those families who came to the […]

Mary Poonen Lukose

January 28, 2017

K.S. Mohindra Ottawa, Ontario, Canada   Dr. Mary Poonen Lukose In a country where the status of women has been less than impressive, the Indian physician Mary Poonen Lukose blazed fiercely forward in a field dominated by men. Specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, she demonstrated innovation, leadership, and effective organizing capacities, making significant contributions to […]

When angels sing

January 27, 2017

Mary Sommers Chicago, Illinois, United States Photography by Matthew Paulson   All living things have a natural urge to sing. Humans and other mammals, birds, insects, and even the great, extinct woolly mammoth sing special songs to call their children home. Though singing is universal, many people feel uncomfortable singing, as if we’ll be judged […]

Miracle on Kedvale

January 27, 2017

Mary Sommers Chicago, Illinois, United States   Photography by Oplotnik Elizabeth enraged her family by falling in love—the wrong thing to do, as far as they were concerned, for a poor girl from a broken home in a small town in Mexico. During a secret courtship, she became pregnant. Elizabeth’s pregnancy added another burden to […]

When did you last let your heart decide?

January 27, 2017

Sukanya Sam Chennai, India This woman in labor is not my patient. But the nurses worriedly tell me that the baby’s heartbeat could not be localized. Both handheld Doppler machines had broken down in the labor room unit of our small tertiary hospital. I was the resident on duty. I use the Pinard’s stethoscope, my […]

Cultural warfare: investigating childbirth practices in Doctor Zhivago

January 27, 2017

Stephanie S. Colello New York, United States   Caption: “Stalin’s tenderness to our future children shines!” I was fortunate to spend a year studying the transformation of Russian childbirth practices through the lens of Russian literature—an endeavor that at first glance may seem farfetched. However, I quickly realized that no birth scene is written as […]

Leaders in the development of Western obstetric practice

January 27, 2017

Sara Buck   The history of obstetrics contains too many notable figures to simply select six key leaders in its development. However, as Laura Kaplan notes in “Changes in Childbirth in the US,” featured in the current issue, modern obstetrics has been greatly influenced by the invention and modernization of the forceps (Chamberlen and Smellie), […]

Forceps: a brief history

January 27, 2017

Sara Buck “He’s a little old man very pale of complexion / Into many things makes a narrow inspection / His head’s very long and his hand’s very small” are the mysterious lines that open an anonymous 17th century English poem.1 Often presumed to refer to Hugh Chamberlen the Elder—the last of the famous Huguenot […]

Gynecology and obstetrics

January 27, 2017

Matko Marusic Croatia This essay is reprinted from Medicine from Inside (Medicina iznutra) by Matko Marusic, 2006, and translated from Croatian into English by Dr. Mario Malicki.   A mountain farmer’s voice reached me from the window of the student hall: “We cannot play on Saturday.” I could not believe it! I had arranged for […]