Provocative Book raises Questions of Consequence for Women’s Health

What: Jennifer Block, author of the best-selling book, Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, will discuss what Publishers Weekly has described as a "provocative, highly readable exposé [that] raises questions of great consequence for anyone planning to have a baby in the U.S., as well as those interested or involved in women's health care." The public is invited to attend this free lecture.

When: Wednesday, November 18 from 4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Where: Rittenberg Lounge in Mather Hall on the Trinity campus, 300 Summit Street.

Background: Block’s investigation of modern maternity care, a system in which few women have an optimal experience, was selected by Kirkus Reviews as a "Best Book of 2007."  With cesarean sections on the rise and the use of midwives not always an option, Pushed has been called "a wake-up call for our times."

"“No woman who is pregnant, has been pregnant, or plans to be pregnant should set foot inside the office of her ob/gyn before reading" Pushed, wrote the Women’s Review of Books. And Library Journal called it "A stirring discussion of reproductive rights, informed consent, and the rights of the mother vs. the fetus."

Essentially, Block’s book is an expose of American obstetrics, written after extensive field research. She reveals disturbing statistics regarding this country’s birth management and shows how medical views of birth are, according to Kirkus Reviews, "as subject to change as the whims of fashion."

Indeed, more than half of labors in the United States are chemically induced or augmented and two-thirds of women have their water broken manually. Also, an increasing number of women are giving birth by cesarean section rather than delivering their babies vaginally.

And yet, preterm births are rising, cerebral palsy rates remain constant and women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in the U.S. than in Europe. Why? Block argues, "In the age of evidence-based medicine … care is constrained and determined by liability and financial concerns, by a provider’s licensing regulations and malpractice insurance. The evidence often has nothing to do with it."

Block was been a journalist for more than 10 years, writing and editing for magazines, newsweeklies, and blogs. She frequently covers women’s health and politics and the intersection of the two.

Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, Mothering, The Nation, ELLE, and other publications. Her investigative pieces have tackled such controversial issues as police harassment of street prostitutes, rape in the military, abortion tourism, and the politics of sex education.

A former editor of Ms. Magazine, Block was also a senior editor at the eco-lifestyle magazine Plenty and served as an editor of the revised classic, Our Bodies, Ourselves. Since the publication of Pushed, she writes and speaks frequently on maternity care issues.

This lecture is sponsored by the following departments and programs: American Studies; Anthropology; Educational Studies; English; Human Rights; Philosophy; Political Science; Psychology; Public Policy and Law; Women, Gender, and Sexuality; and also the Health Fellows; the Office of Multicultural Affairs; the Women and Gender Resource Action Center; and the Writing Center.

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