Our Bodies, Our Babies: The Forgotten Women's Movement

(Paperback)

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This is a brilliant and original contribution to the history of Australian women and the family. Kerreen Reiger is absolutely right to see the childbirth movement as the forgotten women's movement, and the great pleasure of this book is to find in every chapter the right questions being asked. Dr Janet McCalman, University of Melbourne In Western countries for most of the twentieth century, the management of childbirth and the care of babies was largely controlled by doctors and a hierarchical hospital system headed by men. In Our Bodies, Our Babies, Kerreen Reiger traces the struggle of Australian women to change approaches to childbirth, to claim their right to choices in childbirth, and to educate themselves about birth and breastfeeding. She explores the movement which radically changed our maternity care practices. This absorbing story draws on interviews with women and doctors, and on archival material from relevant women's organisations. Any woman who has ever given birth, and anyone who has cared for mothers and babies, will want to read this book.

Author Bio

Kerreen Reiger is both a mother and Senior Lecturer in Sociology at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Her previous books are The Disenchantment of the Home- Modernizing the Australian Family and Family Economy.