REVIEW: Get Me Out (Epstein)

Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank

By: Randi Hutter Epstein - Preview It Here

There were two things that drew me to this book. For one, I find the history of childbirth in America very interesting. I'm fascinated with how advances were discovered, why masses of women made the choices they did, and to watch how we have come full circle and see that homebirth is on the rise again. The second part was simply the fact that the author's last name is the same as the producer of The Business of Being Born. I've yet to find any evidence that they are related but it was a point of interest for me nonetheless.

This book addresses the original birth plan (homebirth) and goes on to discuss the changes in maternity care such as forceps, hospital birth, twilight sleep, fertility drugs, C-sections, ultrasound, and artificial insemination. I'm not typically good with random historical facts but I found the bit about how forceps totally intriguing. They were created by The Chamberlens, a family of man-midwives, and it ultimately became a very effective marketing tool. They had the highest rates of getting babies out and keeping mothers alive. In fact, their instrument was a highly kept secret for 200 years. They were carried in a large, heavy, wooden box and were only used after everyone else had left the room and a sheet was draped over the mother so as to prevent even the woman from having a peek at the gadget.

I had a very difficult time reading through the advances of Dr. Marion Sims. While he made the most progress in dealing with fistulas (a side effect of extreme and prolonged pushing), he did it at the cost of operating on slave women and bore them no dignity or privacy in the process.

It's interesting to note how the opinions of women changed over the years. In fact, doctors were not favored at all and many Lying-In (maternity) Hospitals were transferring Childbed Fever from patient to patient until the germ theory was discovered and hand washing and general hygiene became the standard. When rumors of "twilight sleep" hit the U.S., women demanded pain-free childbirth. What they didn't realize was that the delivery was anything but pain free. Basically, the drugs caused them to forget. In essence, it's like it never even happened. Ironically enough, most American physicians were not on board with giving this drug cocktail but women fought back until they got what they wanted.

I once read (in another source) that it takes 20 years for proven research to become practice. This was certainly evident in this text. For example, it was absolutely true in the case of Childbed Fever as doctors refused to believe that they were responsible for making the women sick. X-rays of the female pelvis began in 1930s. In 1956 a study showed that they could cause cancer but they were still routinely used in pregnancy until the 70s. In the 1950s natural childbirth started making a comeback but didn't become a full-fledged movement until the 70s. This 20-year phenomenon was again evident with the drug DES (estrogen therapy). It was used to sustain a pregnancy but 20 years later they determined that it had effects in the female offspring causing cancer or sterility. It took another 20 years before it was finally taken off the market. Seems ludicrous, right?! Yet, even now we are facing the same question with ultrasound. Wonder how long we will continue down this path until they stop using it so frequently?

The last two chapters of Get Me Out deal with technological advances for freezing sperm, eggs, and embryos. Again, I was fascinated. I was reminded of how perfect yet complex the body is and that creating and sustaining a pregnancy is more of a miracle than we often realize. The ability to create life almost instantaneously and at the time of our choosing will certainly have an affect on our society. Time will tell just how much.

I rather enjoyed this story and the author writes in a way that is factual yet comical. I did indeed laugh out loud a few times. Most of the "techniques" she writes about seemed perfectly logistical at the time yet they are quite shocking and laughable in the 21st century. Still, I think it's always important to know exactly how we have arrived at our current state of affairs. We've made huge advances yet it seems we still have a ways to go.