Historical Look at Childbirth in the US, 1750-1975
This figure show all sorts of things in the history of US childbirth - % midwife attended births over time, % hospital births over time, % of births using anesthesia ... Figure from:
Leavitt, Judith Walzer. 1986. Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America 1750 to 1950. New York: Oxford University Press.
Comments
My first responses are I am surprised that although home birth did not seem to dramatically decrease until 1938, midwives were used less and less beginning in the early 1800. I guess this is the visual proof that the switch to doctors was a switch to drug use as well, those lines seem to mirror one another starting in the 1850's.
Posted by: Jen | February 23, 2007 11:15 PM