A History of the Lamaze Method in the USSR, France and the US, 1930-80

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Childbirth preparation is now a universal phenomenon throughout much of the world, including the United States, and the name "Lamaze" is practically synonymous with this rite-of-passage en route to parenthood. Despite the fact that all American parents attend childbirth preparation classes, no study of this practice's origins and evolution has been undertaken. This book situates the transnational story of psychoprophylaxis, popularized in the United States as the Lamaze Method, against the backdrop of the Cold War. The study reconstructs the transmission of this method of childbirth preparation from the Soviet Union, to France, and then to the U.S. This book aims to help bring greater awareness and intentionality to contemporary obstetric practices, particularly with respect to pain management choices, through an examination of the historical origins and development of the Lamaze method. This narrative will expose obstetric professionals and paraprofessionals to different perspectives on the link between childbirth and pain, potentially reshaping the patient-caregiver relationship in everyday practice by stimulating reflection on reigning assumptions and suggesting alternative views. This book inquires into how these divergent political, economic, and cultural contexts shaped not only the method's practice, but the social meaning that both advocates and detractors ascribed to it. The methods of the social history of medicine, brought to bear on a wide array of published and archival sources from the Russian Federation, Ukraine, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, shed light on shifting, socially-constructed notions of obstetric pain, childbirth, motherhood, and civic duty. This study breaks new scholarly ground through its ambitious transnational analysis of the intersection of medical practice and Cold War politics.