The prevailing belief among medical professionals was that babies came into the world with no real pain perception, no human emotions, and without minds to interpret anything that was happening to them. This was a tragic miscalculation and it continues to a large extent in the medical world today. These obsolete ideas were built into the foundations of neonatology, the new branch of medicine organized to deal with extremely fragile babies born long before term. Neonatal Intensive Care Nurseries were created for babies who were not expected to feel, register, or learn from their treatment. With 19th Century ideas still prevailing, a host of painful procedures were designed for babies who, supposedly, had no pain perception.
Pregnancy shapes families, attitudes, and self-esteem.
In modern technological cultures, pregnancy is perceived as a disease rather than a natural and healthy experience. This medicalization of birth has deep psychological consequences for men and women. Authorities, whether medical or educational, who assume jurisdiction over birth can easily intimidate and undermine the natural authority of women to give birth in freedom, fully informed, in locations they choose, and with caregivers they prefer. In addition you will find an extended exerpt from an influential book by Robbie Davis-Floyd, a cultural anthropologist with deep psychological understanding. This feature presentation, designed for the world wide web by Ed Goldberg, provides a rich introduction to a host of issues raised by the medicalization of childbirth in a technological society like ours.