附註:Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-368) and index.
One year: the stages of the pregnancy/childbirth rite of passage -- Separation: "Oh my God, I think I'm pregnant!" -- Transition: pregnancy as transformation -- Transition: birth as transformation -- Transition: the immediate postpartum period -- Integration: "Swimming up on the other side" -- The technocratic model: past and present -- Medicine as a microcosm of American society -- The body as machine -- The technocratic model of birth -- The role of American obstetrics in the resolution of cultural anomaly -- Birth messages -- "Standard procedures for normal birth" -- A symbolic analysis of standard obstetrical procedures -- From nature to culture: the obstetrical re-structuring of accidental out-of-hospital births -- Summary: birth rituals and society -- Belief systems about birth: the technocratic, wholistic, and natural models -- The significance of belief -- The wholistic model of birth -- The technocratic and wholistic models of birth compared -- "Natural" models of birth -- The ideology of safety -- The alternative birth center: a middle ground? -- How the messages are received: the spectrum of response -- Full acceptance of the technocratic model of birth -- Full acceptance of the wholistic model of birth -- Women-in-between -- Scars into stars: the reinterpretation of the childbirth experience -- Compartmentalization -- "Further epistemic exploration": "Teilhard de Chardin" versus "Sartre" -- Obstetric training as a rite of passage -- Methods -- Processes of psychological transformation: medical school and residency.
