Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2024 -

In this deeply researched and engaging work, Judith A. Houck (history and gender and women's studies, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) examines the impact of the women's liberation movement on healthcare options for American women over the last 50 years. The book is divided into four sections: cervical self-exam (hence the book's title) and the self-help gynecological movement it spawned; access to abortion; lesbian health concerns; and issues around access to healthcare for women of color. Houck looks at four women's health clinics, three in northern California and one in San Francisco, while simultaneously providing the national context. As the author makes clear, both internal struggles and outside criticism challenged these clinics on an almost daily basis, each responding in a variety of ways. In the end, the clinics survived as women's healthcare evolved over the last five decades. Extensive use of existing secondary sources as well as a wealth of primary sources, including interviews done by the author with a variety of participants and activists, makes this a compelling and informative read.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through practitioners.

This is a very well-organized, well-illustrated, and mostly readable history and summary of reports on the better training of midwives, the development of obstetrics, and the improvement of maternity and newborn care in the UK from the 18th century to the present. Experts review how the Confidential Enquiries Into Maternal Deaths investigated the causes of maternal deaths and made recommendations for changes that have greatly reduced serious morbidity and mortality. Main topics include the gradual move from home birth to hospital delivery, prolonged labor, Cesarean section, sepsis, hemorrhage and blood transfusion, hypertension, abortion, embolism, heart disease, epilepsy, cancer, anesthesia, psychiatric illness and suicide, obesity, substance misuse, ethnicity, older mothers of many children, and much more. Tool kits were shared globally and three international case studies from South Africa; Kerala, India; and California are provided. The text briefly introduces many key male and female leaders in this important effort, showing their black-and-white photographs. Additionally, numerous figures, graphs, charts, tables, and document-cover photocopies enhance this remarkable story. Despite British spellings and the use of many acronyms, this is an excellent text for students of public health, nursing, and medicine.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.