Birth Day

A Pediatrician Explores the Science, the History, and the Wonder of Childbirth

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Health
Cover of the book Birth Day by Mark Sloan, M.D., BookBaby
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Mark Sloan, M.D. ISBN: 9781620953655
Publisher: BookBaby Publication: March 24, 2009
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Mark Sloan, M.D.
ISBN: 9781620953655
Publisher: BookBaby
Publication: March 24, 2009
Imprint:
Language: English
"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." 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 3,000 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-day operating room; from Aristotle and Julius Cesar to a trailblazing, cross-dressing British army surgeon; from a recent past filled with the horrors of childbirth gone wrong to the 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.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
"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." 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 3,000 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-day operating room; from Aristotle and Julius Cesar to a trailblazing, cross-dressing British army surgeon; from a recent past filled with the horrors of childbirth gone wrong to the 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.

More books from BookBaby

Cover of the book Digitizing Boardroom by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Seven Sparks by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Unenlightened by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Con-Job by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book In The Business Of You by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book The Battle of Shee Atika' by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Take Ego Out of It by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Lord, Use Me by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book America A Society Gone Wrong by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Searching For My Wand by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Voice of the Poet by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Lonely Together by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Not A Flotation Device by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Lakeford Affair by Mark Sloan, M.D.
Cover of the book Fire & Wind by Mark Sloan, M.D.
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy