Birth Rites and Rights

Fatemeh Ebtehaj, Jonathan Herring, Martin Johnson M.A., PhD., F.R.C.O.G., Martin Richards, Fatemeh Ebtehaj, Jonathan Herring, Martin Johnson M.A., PhD., F.R.C.O.G., Martin Richards, Cambridge Socio-Legal Group

• Publisher: Hart Publishing
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9781849461887
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781847316707
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Medical Law
• Index: Law

This multi-disciplinary collection of essays from the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group is concerned with the varying circumstances, manner, timing and experiences of birth. It contains essays from a wide range of disciplines including law, medicine, anthropology, history and sociology, examining birth from the perspectives of mother, doctor, midwife and father. Questions considered in the book include: who has power during the birthing process? How has the experience of birth changed over time? Should birth mark a significant change in the legal status of the foetus? What is the proper role of birth registration? What role, if any, do fathers have in the birthing process? What legal rights should the woman have to refuse treatment during the birthing process? What is the significance of changes of the age at which women give birth? This stimulating collection of papers provides new insights into one of life's most momentous moments.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Prelims
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: Birth Writes
• Part 1: Experiences and Rites of Birth
• 1. Becoming a Mother: Continuities and Discontinuities over Three Decades
• 2. Changing Medical Birth Rites in Britain: 1970 - 2010
• 3. Are Doctors Still Improving Childbirth?
• 4. The Midwife-Mother Relationship
• Part 2: Status and Consequences of Birth
• 5. The Loneliness of Status: The Legal and Moral Significance of Birth
• 6. Refusing Medical Treatment during Pregnancy and Birth: Ethical and Legal Issues
• 7. The Consequences for Preterm Infants of Antenatal Glucocorticoid Treatment
• 8. Fathers, Birth and Law
• Part 3: After Birth
• 9. Recording Births: From the Reformation to the Welfare Reform Act
• 10. The Changing Form of Birth Registration?
• 11. Birthright had Nothing to do with it; Royal Inheritance in the Middle Ages
• 12. Infanticide and Insanity in 19th Century England
• Part 4: Timing of Birth
• 13. Explaining the Trend Towards Older First Time Mothers - A Life Course Perspective
• 14. Too Late or Too Many - Dilemmas Facing the Modern Woman Seeking Help with Fertility
• 15. IVF Birth Data Presentation: Its Impact on Clinical Practice and Patient Choice
• Index