The Medicalization of Birth and Death

Author:   Lauren K. Hall (Associate Professor of Political Science, Rochester Institute of Technology)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN:  

9781421433332


Pages:   352
Publication Date:   11 February 2020
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
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The Medicalization of Birth and Death


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Overview

Improving how individuals give birth and die in the United States requires reforming the regulatory, reimbursement, and legal structures that centralize care in hospitals and prevent the growth of community-based alternatives. In 1900, most Americans gave birth and died at home, with minimal medical intervention. By contrast, most Americans today begin and end their lives in hospitals. The medicalization we now see is due in large part to federal and state policies that draw patients away from community-based providers, such as birth centers and hospice care, and toward the most intensive and costliest kinds of care. But the evidence suggests that birthing and dying people receive too much—even harmful—medical intervention. In The Medicalization of Birth and Death, political scientist Lauren K. Hall describes how and why birth and death became medicalized events. While hospitalization provides certain benefits, she acknowledges, it also creates harms, limiting patient autonomy, driving up costs, and causing a cascade of interventions, many with serious side effects. Tracing the regulatory, legal, and financial policies that centralize care during birth and death, Hall argues that medicalization reduces competition, stifles innovation, and prevents individuals from accessing the most appropriate care during their most vulnerable moments. She also examines the profound implications of policy-enforced medicalization on informed consent and shows how medicalization challenges the healthcare community's most foundational ethical commitments. Drawing on interviews with medical and nonmedical healthcare providers, as well as surveys of patients and their families, Hall provides a broad overview of the costs, benefits, and origins of medicalized birth and death. The Medicalization of Birth and Death is required reading for academics, patients, providers, policymakers, and anyone else interested in how policy shapes healthcare options and limits patients and providers during life's most profound moments.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lauren K. Hall (Associate Professor of Political Science, Rochester Institute of Technology)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.612kg
ISBN:  

9781421433332


ISBN 10:   1421433338
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   11 February 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction. The Watershed of Healthcare Decision Making Chapter One. Medicalized Birth and the Current of Centralized Care Chapter Two. Medicalized Death and the Current of Centralized Care Chapter Three. Safe Harbors for Demedicalized Birth and Death Chapter Four. Navigating the Regulation Tributary Chapter Five. Swept Away on the Reimbursement Headwater Chapter Six. Caught in the Riptide of Risk Chapter Seven. Black Birth and Death in the Medicalized Rapids Conclusion. Reshaping the Watershed Appendix. Interview Information Glossary Notes Index

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Author Information

Lauren K. Hall is an associate professor of political science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is the author of Family and the Politics of Moderation: Private Life, Public Goods, and the Rebirth of Social Individualism.

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