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Caesarean Birth, Experience, Practice and History

Helen Churchill

BFM (Books for Midwives Press) 1997 ISBN: 1-898507 51 1

This is a well-researched, perceptive and carefully reasoned book.

The history of the caesarean operation is covered in readable detail and includes the important aspects of changing attitudes together with discussion of the debates which have always surrounded the operation. The author goes on to relate the results of her own two studies into women's experiences of caesarean birth.

The historical background gives a good basis for deeper understanding of how women in the 1990s experience operative delivery and the issues which surround and underpin those experiences.

The author concludes with four recommendations on how maternity care relating to caesarean section may be improved.

Although this is not the first book on caesareans I would recommend to a newly-delivered caesarean mother it would doubtless prove most informative to anyone who has an academic rather than a purely personal interest in caesarean section.

It should be considered essential reading for all MSLC reps and maternity services professionals.

Reviewed by Gina Lowdon (1998)

This review first appeared in NCT New Generation, Vol 17 No1, March 1998, pp36-37

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