Download PDF Birth Day A Pediatrician Explores the Science the History and the Wonder of Childbirth Mark Sloan 9780692220214 Books
Download As PDF : Birth Day A Pediatrician Explores the Science the History and the Wonder of Childbirth Mark Sloan 9780692220214 Books
I delivered twenty babies in the summer of 1977. I was hardly more than a baby myself, just turned twenty-four and starting my third year of medical school."-from Birth Day So began Mark Sloan's three-decades-long exploration of the wonders and oddities of human childbirth. Pediatrician, husband, and father, the author has attended nearly three thousand births since that long-ago summer, encountering everything from routine deliveries to tense labor-room dramas. In Birth Day, Sloan draws on his personal and professional experience to weave the strands of memoir, history, science, and culture into a fascinating-and often funny-tapestry of this fundamental human passage. Birth Day takes the reader on a remarkable journey, from the dawn of human history to the quiet efficiency of a modern operating room; from Aristotle and Julius Caesar to a trailblazing, cross-dressing British army surgeon; from a recent past filled with the horrors of childbirth gone wrong to a present day, in which every pregnancy is expected to end happily. Some of Birth Day's many topics include • The evolution of human childbirth-or, why do gorillas have it so easy? • The first five minutes of life-scuba divers, astronauts, and the amazing adaptations that transform a fetus into an air-breathing, out-in-the-world baby • Cesarean section-a look at its origins, its future, and how it came to be the most frequently performed operation in American hospitals • Pain and politics-the age-old quest for painless childbirth, starring Adam and Eve, Queen Victoria, a nineteenth-century medical brawl, and the rise of today's "epidural monoculture" • Daddies-raging paternal hormones, hidden anxieties, and the emotional evolution of men (including the author, his father, and grandfather) as they approach fatherhood • The five senses at birth-does light enter the womb? how loud is it in there? what is a newborn baby searching for with those first anxious glances? • A tour of the newborn body-springy skulls, hairy ears, innies and outies, the advantages (and disadvantages) of looking like your father, and why the United States is one of the world's most circumcised nations Delightfully instructive and entertaining, Birth Day offers a fresh, sometimes irreverent take on a universally familiar topic. Warm, reassuring, and packed with stories from the author's work and life, this unique book is one pediatrician's meditation on the hiding-in-plain-sight marvels of human birth.
Download PDF Birth Day A Pediatrician Explores the Science the History and the Wonder of Childbirth Mark Sloan 9780692220214 Books
"One of my favorite types of book, combining science with personal anecdotes to examine some very controversial topics with logic and compassion."
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Tags : Birth Day A Pediatrician Explores the Science, the History, and the Wonder of Childbirth [Mark Sloan] on . I delivered twenty babies in the summer of 1977. I was hardly more than a baby myself, just turned twenty-four and starting my third year of medical school. -from Birth Day So began Mark Sloan's three-decades-long exploration of the wonders and oddities of human childbirth. Pediatrician,Mark Sloan,Birth Day A Pediatrician Explores the Science, the History, and the Wonder of Childbirth,Bodega Bay Books,0692220216,Family / Parenting / Childbirth,HEALTH FITNESS / Pregnancy Childbirth,Pregnancy Childbirth,Pregnancy, birth baby care
Birth Day A Pediatrician Explores the Science the History and the Wonder of Childbirth Mark Sloan 9780692220214 Books Reviews :
Birth Day A Pediatrician Explores the Science the History and the Wonder of Childbirth Mark Sloan 9780692220214 Books Reviews
- This is a good book for any expecting mother. It goes a lot into the history of birth
- Of the half dozen baby/birth books I've read since I got pregnant, this was by far the best written. Dr. Sloan had me (and my husband) laughing every couple of pages. Filled with both insightful anecdotes and careful historical research, it's an informative and very fun read. Unlike most pregnancy/birth/baby books, it's downright hard to put down. It's also the single book that best educated me on what I might expect of a hospital birth and on the origins of today's hospital culture. There are plenty of books out there by "natural" birth advocates to describe birth at home or in a hippie commune, but a relative scarcity of hospital birth stories. Through his anecdotes, Dr. Sloan finally answered the questions I had as a first-time mom.
- As someone who enjoys reading nonfiction, history, sociology, etc. I enjoyed the writing style of this book. It was a quick and easy read and covered aspects of birth, culture, and infant development that I had not considered or heard about before.
- One of my favorite types of book, combining science with personal anecdotes to examine some very controversial topics with logic and compassion.
- This excelent book about the day of birth combines history, science, and ancecdotes by the pediatrition author. Best of all, the book is interesting, packed with information AND told with a fine sense of humor and compassion. Great fun to learn so much while reading a well written book.
- A real page-turning read, Birth Day is equally entertaining and informative. Easily this soon to be parent's favorite "baby" book!
- Since you are obviously interested in this type of book or you wouldn't be reading this... this is the one to buy. Humor does make books about "scientific" topics much more readable. Child birth is Scientific????
- This book was great! I've been wanting to read it for a while and am glad I finally finished it. I gave it 4/5 stars because it took me quite a while to finish it, not because it was long, but because the information and writing got a little dry for me in the middle of the book. I actually put it down for a week, tried again, put it down a little while longer, then picked it back up to finish it. The last few chapters were very interesting for me because they had to do with the actual baby just after birth.
When I first started reading this book I thought the author reminded me a little of Mary Roach and her non-fiction books. Sloan's writing style is very personal, as if he's sitting next to you and talking to you, and can be quite funny at times.
The mix of personal experiences and researched information was quite interesting and fulfilling for me. Also, there is a section of references in the back of the book listed by chapter and page number if the reader is interested in looking up any of the information.
I actually dog-eared (which I never do) a couple of the pages for future reference when I (hopefully) have children. The information was all very useful and interesting.
I recently read "Birth Plans for Dummies" and found that Sloan's book, while information and historical, somewhat imitated the Dummies book in that Sloan wrote information about natural vs C-section births, having others in the room, and even the first few moments and days. Sloan's historical information about C-sections and epidurals was very interesting. Even the section about who would be in the room with the mother and the research about fathers.
I would recommend this book for anyone who may have a baby in the future and is interested in the history of giving birth, to doctors and nurses who work with pregnant women and babies, and anyone else simply interested in babies.
