Author showcases research about how men co-opted pregnancy care
Allison Yarrow released Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men over Motherhood in July
A new book details the development of pregnancy care throughout American history and how men commandeered it for profit and personal gain.
In July, an award-winning journalist and author, Allison Yarrow, released Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men over Motherhood. The book focuses on many aspects of maternal medicine, including the history of midwives, the overuse and risks of C-section procedures, and the harmful myths surrounding pregnancy and birth.
“I want people to know who the book is for, and I think it's for everyone,” Yarrow said. “We all are born. But specifically, those who I think need to read this book are people who are pregnant or want to be and need to understand the landscape so that they can make good decisions and protect themselves.”
Yarrow points out that women typically handled birth in the United States until men began going to Europe to study medicine. They then stole the practice from midwives, who had taught them how to deliver babies. When women initially went to the hospital, there were more deaths because doctors didn’t wash their hands or use many antiseptic techniques. Yarrow thinks maternal care would be dramatically better had birthing remained the province of midwives over the centuries,
“I don't think we would have the abysmal maternal mortality rate that we have right now,” Yarrow said. “The CDC recently released a study finding just rampant mistreatment and discrimination in maternal health care. And the doctors and researchers at the CDC who led that study said that the midwifery model of care and doulas are key to lowering the maternal mortality rate.”
As with many other aspects of healthcare, hospital administrators and doctors are incentivized to make as much money as possible through the medical treatment they provide. That means pushing unnecessary and risky procedures so that more profit is made. Thirty percent of births are C-sections, and most are unnecessary.
Births typically happen in a surgical suite to preserve the possibility of performing one of those procedures. One study that Yarrow looked at said C-sections can cost anywhere from $6,000 to $60,000, depending on whether you have private insurance or Medicaid.
“When you enter the hospital in labor, and your providers put the labor under their control–putting you at risk–it means that they can move you through faster,” Yarrow said.
“And that's what creates the profit.”
Yarrow wants expectant mothers to have the experience they imagined for themselves. But she knows many don’t have that when they finally deliver their child.
“It wasn't sort of the rosy thing that they pictured,” Yarrow said. “They need validation around that and deserve it. And those people who take care of birthing people–doctors, nurses, midwives, doulas–I want to just say that they're doing the work of heroes, and they need better support in this system to take care of people in ways that they need to be cared for.”