List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Birth in the Big Open
2. The Expertise of Women
3. Midwives among Us
4. The Practice of Birth
5. Death in the West
6. Birth Goes Public
7. Maternity Homes and Motherhood
Conclusion: What We Lost
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Jennifer J. Hill is an assistant teaching professor of American studies at Montana State University. She serves as the executive director of the Women’s Reproductive History Alliance, a digital museum dedicated to educating the public on reproductive history.
"An important and engaging read."—Meg Eppel
Gudgeirsson, Journal of Arizona History
"While the book is of immediate interest to scholars of women's and
reproductive history, all historians of the US West and Plains
would be wise to include childbirth in their accounts of the
region's transformations. Childbirth is a major event in the
private lives of men and women but remains at the periphery of
academic history. As Jennifer J. Hill demonstrates, both the act of
childbirth and its attendant cultural meanings was a central plank
in the territorial expansion of the United States."—Rachel
Miller, Nebraska History Magazine
"This is an excellent resource book about a subject seldom in the
forefront of Western literature."—Candy Moulton, True West
"Hill provides a clear picture of the difficulties faced by
pregnant women and the fundamentally important role that female
community members—especially midwives—played in the settlement of
the West."—Hannah Haksgaard, Montana: The Magazine of Western
History
"This book is a compelling addition to the historiography of
the American West and the history of medicine. Further, it would
serve as an excellent supplement to any U.S. West survey course,
providing a compelling narrative to restructure how we understand
the history of westward expansion, midwifery, and women's
labor."—Gianna May Sanchez, South Dakota History
"Birthing the West conveys how power in intimate spaces was
negotiated by women and, later, men as the northern plains region
of the West became increasingly incorporated into centralized power
structures."—Meg Frisbee, Kansas History
“Jennifer Hill puts women in the forefront of western history and
shows the equal importance of women’s worlds in the settling of the
West. She writes clearly, thoughtfully, and, in places, lyrically.
Hill projects images wonderfully and makes her points well.”—Todd
L. Savitt, author of Race and Medicine in Nineteenth- and
Early-Twentieth-Century America
“Hill’s work is very important to the historiography of the
northern Great Plains states. Looking through the lens of
childbirth provides unique perspectives on family formation,
regional professionalization, and Great Plains settler colonialism.
One of the exciting elements of this book is how women create
community and ‘reproduce’ the state. There are good local stories
here to enjoy.”—Molly P. Rozum, author of Grasslands Grown:
Creating Place on the U.S. Northern Plains and Canadian Prairies
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