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Rickets, race and reproduction : contracted pelvis and the American way of birth / Deborah Kuhn McGregor with Robert Kuhn McGregor.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- McGregor, Deborah Kuhn, author.
- McGregor, Robert Kuhn, 1952- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Rickets--United States--History.
- Rickets.
- Discrimination in medical care--United States--History.
- Discrimination in medical care.
- Prenatal care--United States--History.
- Prenatal care.
- Pelvis--Abnormalities.
- Pelvis.
- Labor (Obstetrics)--Complications.
- Labor (Obstetrics).
- Rickets--history.
- Obstetric Labor Complications.
- Social Determinants of Health--history.
- Prenatal Care--history.
- Pelvis--abnormalities.
- United States.
- Medical Subjects:
- Rickets--history.
- Obstetric Labor Complications.
- Social Determinants of Health--history.
- Prenatal Care--history.
- Pelvis--abnormalities.
- United States.
- Physical Description:
- viii, 298 pages ; 23 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, [2023]
- Summary:
- "This book outlines the history of rickets, a disease commonly associated with childhood, and studies its association with race and its long-reaching effects on childbirth. For centuries, the condition was poorly understood. For females, rickets could pose a double jeopardy: suffering in childhood and severe danger in adulthood when giving birth. The disease could result in a contracted pelvis that obstructs the birth canal. Medical researchers were faced with two distinct challenges: unravelling the etiology of rickets and ensuring the safety of women giving birth-both proved especially difficult. Thought variously to be a disease of industrial cities and children of the poor, grounded in lack of exercise or sunlight, or the of product racial difference, the condition defied analysis until the discovery of vitamin D early in the 20th century. The dangers of rickets radically diminished. Medical intervention in childbirth continued, and childbirth increasingly shifted from the home to the hospital. Medical practitioners justified intervention by emphasizing the dangers of pelvic disproportion, continually enlarging the definition to gain full control of birth. Often conditioned by racial assumptions, surgical experimentation promoted common use of anesthesia and a radical increase in caesarean sections, and birth became a colder, more clinical experience"-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Coauthor's note / by Robert Kuhn McGregor
- Preface / by Robert Kuhn McGregor
- Introduction: Considering the contracted pelvis
- The lens of the female pelvis
- The riddle of rickets
- The impediment of race
- Science reloads
- American research impaired
- Combating a riddle unresolved
- Johns Hopkins to the fore
- Intervention in childbirth
- Pediatricians' progress
- Case records at the OOS
- An obstetrical definition of race
- The learning curve of Alfred F. Hess
- Control of American birth
- Solving the riddle of rickets
- Conclusion: The sum of the equation.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1932 Fund.
- ISBN:
- 9781476693712
- 1476693714
- OCLC:
- 1380391745
- Publisher Number:
- 99995764251
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