Review

Labour in the capital

POWER, POLITICS AND PREGNANCY
Health Rights, £3.95.
Belinda Pratten

This book takes the notorious Wendy Savage affair as a starting point for a discussion of key issues in maternity care. There is a particular emphasis on community and policy, rather than individual concerns. This is one of the book’s main strengths. Too much media attention was given during the enquiry to the colour of Mrs Savage’s trousers, and not enough to community health planning in the east end of London, the links between deprived areas and poor health, or the accountability of the NHS to its users.

All these issues are discussed, in the context of a critical examination of the claim that modern interventionist obstetrics provides a safe and appropriate service for mothers and babies.

The arguments are presented within a feminist perspective which highlights the problems of sexism, paternalism and gender stereotyping in the politics of reproduction and in the day-to-day functioning of what passes for “maternity care”. The author brings to the reader’s attention how information presented to pregnant women can tend to coerce them into being submissive, passive patients rather than well informed, active users who are able to take sensible decisions about the services offered to them.

The author is to be congratulated for covering such considerable ground. She provides a necessary redressing of the balance in terms of the underlying, often ignored, issues of the Wendy Savage saga. There are some questions which arose from the case which are not covered at all, and being a short work (only 75 pages) there is insufficient space to develop the arguments in any depth. There may have been a conscious intention to restrict the argument to the most immediate concerns, and to limit the size and format of the book.

At some point, however, the question of how radical Wendy Savage’s practice really is needs to be discussed from a feminist perspective.

This is a worthwhile book which has something to offer a wide readership, whether new to or familiar with the whole area of reproductive rights. It will provoke plenty of debate — especially since the issues it covers have not gone away.