This anthology examines Love's Labours Lost from a variety of perspectives and through a wide range of materials. Selections discuss the play in terms of historical context, dating, and sources; character analysis; comic elements and verbal conceits; evidence of authorship; performance analysis; and feminist interpretations. Alongside theater reviews, production photographs, and critical commentary, the volume also includes essays written by practicing theater artists who have worked on the play. An index by name, literary work, and concept rounds out this valuable resource.

More than eighty designs--iconic, archaic, quotidian, and taboo--that have defined the arc of human reproduction. While birth often brings great joy, making babies is a knotty enterprise. The designed objects that surround us when it comes to menstruation, birth control, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood vary as oddly, messily, and dramatically as the stereotypes suggest. This smart, image-rich, fashion-forward, and design-driven book explores more than eighty designs--iconic, conceptual, archaic, titillating, emotionally charged, or just plain strange--that have defined the relationships between people and babies during the past century. Each object tells a story. In striking images and engaging text, Designing Motherhood unfolds the compelling design histories and real-world uses of the objects that shape our reproductive experiences. The authors investigate the baby carrier, from the Snugli to BabyBjörn, and the (re)discovery of the varied traditions of baby wearing; the tie-waist skirt, famously worn by a pregnant Lucille Ball on I Love Lucy, and essential for camouflaging and slowly normalizing a public pregnancy; the home pregnancy kit, and its threat to the authority of male gynecologists; and more. Memorable images--including historical ads, found photos, and drawings--illustrate the crucial role design and material culture plays throughout the arc of human reproduction. The book features a prologue by Erica Chidi and a foreword by Alexandra Lange. Contributors Luz Argueta-Vogel, Zara Arshad, Nefertiti Austin, Juliana Rowen Barton, Lindsey Beal, Thomas Beatie, Caitlin Beach, Maricela Becerra, Joan E. Biren, Megan Brandow-Faller, Khiara M. Bridges, Heather DeWolf Bowser, Sophie Cavoulacos, Meegan Daigler, Anna Dhody, Christine Dodson, Henrike Dreier, Adam Dubrowski, Michelle Millar Fisher, Claire Dion Fletcher, Tekara Gainey, Lucy Gallun, Angela Garbes, Judy S. Gelles, Shoshana Batya Greenwald, Robert D. Hicks, Porsche Holland, Andrea Homer-Macdonald, Alexis Hope, Malika Kashyap, Karen Kleiman, Natalie Lira, Devorah L Marrus, Jessica Martucci, Sascha Mayer, Betsy Joslyn Mitchell, Ginger Mitchell, Mark Mitchell, Aidan O’Connor, Lauren Downing Peters, Nicole Pihema, Alice Rawsthorn, Helen Barchilon Redman, Airyka Rockefeller, Julie Rodelli, Raphaela Rosella, Loretta J. Ross, Ofelia Pérez Ruiz, Hannah Ryan, Karin Satrom, Tae Smith, Orkan Telhan, Stephanie Tillman, Sandra Oyarzo Torres, Malika Verma, Erin Weisbart, Deb Willis, Carmen Winant, Brendan Winick, Flaura Koplin Winston

The delivery of high quality and equitable care for both mothers and newborns is complex and requires efforts across many sectors. The United States spends more on childbirth than any other country in the world, yet outcomes are worse than other high-resource countries, and even worse for Black and Native American women. There are a variety of factors that influence childbirth, including social determinants such as income, educational levels, access to care, financing, transportation, structural racism and geographic variability in birth settings. It is important to reevaluate the United States' approach to maternal and newborn care through the lens of these factors across multiple disciplines. Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice reviews and evaluates maternal and newborn care in the United States, the epidemiology of social and clinical risks in pregnancy and childbirth, birth settings research, and access to and choice of birth settings.

Many books have covered the technological revolution that saw wooden hulls replaced by iron and steel, sail superseded by steam, and smooth-bore muzzle-loading gun giving way to rifled breech-loaders and entirely new weapons like torpedoes. But previous works have tended to concentrate on the technology itself, largely to the exclusion of external but crucial factors, like politics, finance, administrative problems, foreign threats and strategic situations. The years 1870-1885 have also been neglected because they were seen as the 'dark ages of the Admiralty', but this book argues strongly that, although the problems faced were greater than in previous decades, it is actually a pivotal period in the emergence of the modern warship. In so doing, it counters the general perception that that those responsible for British design policy at the time were retrogressive, incompetent, or both. What emerges is a more complete picture of the problems - often insoluble - faced by the Admiralty during the era, and the sensible steps it took to meet them.

Based on the hit documentary that inspired a vibrant online community, this innovative approach to birthing shows women how to maximize childbirth's emotional and physical rewards. With more than 4 million babies born in the United States each year, too many women experience birth as nothing more than a routine or painful event. In her much-praised film Orgasmic Birth, acclaimed filmmaker Debra Pascali-Bonaro showed that in fact childbirth is a natural process to be enjoyed and cherished. Now she joins forces with renowned author and activist Elizabeth Davis to offer an enlightening program to help women attain the most empowering and satisfying birth experience possible. While an orgasmic birth can, for some, induce feelings of intense, ecstatic pleasure, it is ultimately about taking control of one's own body and making the most informed decisions to have a safe, memorable, and joyful birth day. Whether women choose to give birth at home, in a hospital, or in a birthing center, Orgasmic Birth provides all the necessary tools and guidance to design the birth plan that's best for them. Featuring inspiring stories from mothers and their partners and filled with practical advice and solutions, this one-of-a-kind resource is the next frontier of natural, intimate childbirth.

"Supported by ample data and suffused with anger,” an award-winning journalist “convincingly recasts this country’s maternal health care system as needlessly dehumanizing” (New York Times Book Review). Modern medicine should make pregnancy and childbirth safer for all. But in Birth Control, award-winning journalist Allison Yarrow reveals how women are controlled, traumatized, injured, and even killed because of the traditionalist practices of medical professionals and hospitals. Ever since doctors stole control of birth from midwives in the 19th century, women have been steamrolled by a male-dominated medical establishment that has everyone convinced that birthing bodies are inherently flawed and that every pregnancy is a crisis that it alone can “solve.” Common medical practices and procedures violate human rights and the law, yet take place daily. Misogyny and racism, not scientific evidence and support, shape the overwhelming majority of America’s four million annual births. Drawing on extensive reporting, expert interviews, an original survey of 1,300 mothers, and her own personal experiences, Yarrow documents how modern maternal health care is insidiously, purposefully designed to take power from women to the detriment of their physical and mental health—not just during labor, but for years after. She then shows a better way, exploring solutions both cutting-edge and ancient to—finally—return power and control to birthing people. Full of urgent insights and heartfelt emotion, Birth Control is an explosive call to action.

This text offers a radical re-assessment of late 17th century architecture and a pioneering investigation of the beginnings of the modern middle class town houses.

Women have long searched for a pleasing birth—a birth with a minimum of fear and pain, in the company of supportive family, friends, and caregivers, a birth that ends with a healthy mother and baby gazing into each other's eyes. For women in the Netherlands, such a birth is defined as one at home under the care of a midwife. In a country known for its liberal approach to drugs, prostitution, and euthanasia, government support for midwife-attended home birth is perhaps its most radical policy: every other modern nation regards birth as too risky to occur outside a hospital setting. In exploring the historical, social, and cultural customs responsible for the Dutch way of birth, Raymond De Vries opens a new page in the analysis of health care and explains why maternal care reform has proven so difficult in the U.S. He carefully documents the way culture shapes the organization of health care, showing how the unique maternity care system of the Netherlands is the result of Dutch ideas about home, the family, women, the body and pain, thriftiness, heroes, and solidarity. A Pleasing Birth breaks new ground and closes gaps in our knowledge of the social and cultural foundations of health care. Offering a view into the Dutch notion of maternity care, De Vries also offers a chance of imagining how Dutch practices can reform health care in the U.S. not just for mothers and babies, but for all Americans.

Environmental awareness and sustainability are vitally important concepts in the twenty first century and, as a low environmental impact healthcare profession, midwifery has the potential to stand as a model of excellence. This innovative volume promotes a sustainable approach to midwifery practice, philosophy, business administration and resource management. Drawing on an interdisciplinary body of knowledge, this international collection of experts explores the challenges, inviting readers to critically reflect on the issues and consider how they could move to effect changes within their own working environments. Divided into three parts, the book discusses: The politics of midwifery and sustainability Midwifery as a sustainable healthcare practice Supporting an ecological approach to parenting. Sustainability, Midwifery and Birth identifies existing models of sustainable midwifery practice, such as the continuity of care model, and highlights the potential for midwifery as a role model for ecologically sound health care provision. This unique book is a vital read for all midwives and midwifery students interested in sustainable practice. Contributors include: Sally Baddock, Carol Bartle, Ruth Deery, Nadine Pilley Edwards, Ina May Gaskin, Megan Gibbons, Carolyn Hastie, Mary Kensington, Mavis Kirkham, Nicky Leap, Ruth Martis, Zoë Meleo-Erwin, Jenny Meyer, Jo Murphy-Lawless, Mary Nolan, Sally Pairman and Sally Tracy.

Gives expectant parents an overview of the options available, offering up-to-the-minute advice on such matters as physical and emotional preparation, the father's role, avoiding a cesarean birth, and other information