Culture Shock: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Early Parenthood at Home and Abroad in the 1970s (Paperback)

Martha Deed, PhD is a psychologist who began her longitudinal childbirth research in Paris in the 1970s. More than two dozen patients involving more than thirty births attended by Dr Pierre Vellay are included in her study. Dr.. Vellay is considered to be Dr Fernand Lamaze's successor in developing accouchement sans douleur or "painless childbirth." Culture Shock includes women's reports of childbirths at the maternity clinique used by Drs. Lamaze and Vellay, as well as women's childbirth experiences elsewhere in Europe, North and South America. An independent researcher and psychotherapist, Deed authored several professional papers based on her interviews with more than 50 women. The interviews took place during a time of feminist activism and hope. Gains achieved then have eroded over time and have motivated her to make her work available to a new generation of pregnant women and new parents.