Encyclopedia of Childbearing: Critical Perspectives »

BARBARA KATZ ROTHMAN, Ph.D., is professor of sociology, Baruch College and the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.

Childbearing is more than pregnancy and labor. It is the having and not having of children. It is a profound event in the lives of families-and in the lives and bodies of women. The feminist movement and the development of feminist studies have helped to rehumanize the subject of childbearing by removing it from the remote environment of institutionalized medicine. The multi-disciplinary Encyclopedia of Childbearing is a major contribution to this new accessibility.

Booknews

Some 250 thorough and thoughtfully written entries, each with plenty of cross referencing and "resource" listings (books, films, articles), make available up-to-date, authoritative information. This is a serious, useful reference much needed in an area crowded with myths and with books that perpetuate misguidance. Neither too medical/technical nor too simplistic in approach, it discusses issues important to parents-to-be and to those who deal with them. Well conceived, and well "birthed," but the inexplicable high cost will unfortunately keep it out of most home libraries and narrow its potentially wide, wide market. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)