What Doctors Don't Tell You, What Corporations Try to Sell You, and How to Put Your Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Before Their Bottom Line Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Scribner (April 16, 2013) Language: English ISBN-10: 1451636083 ISBN-13: 978-1451636086 In the tradition of Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death, an eye-opening work of investigative journalism that challenges our common wisdom about pregnancy, childbirth, and the first year of a baby’s life, showing how the mother and child’s wellbeing are often undermined by corporate profit margins and the private interests of the medical community. Why, despite our state-of-the-art medical technology, does the United States have among the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the industrialized world? Why do pregnant women who are planning to breastfeed receive “free” samples of infant formula from American obstetricians? Why are American newborns given a vaccine at birth against hepatitis B, a sexually transmitted disease? The Business of Baby,an eye-opening work of investigative journalism, exposes how our current cultural practices during pregnancy, childbirth, and the first year of a baby’s life are not based on the best evidence or the most modern science, revealing how American moms and their babies are being undermined by corporate interests. An illuminating combination of meticulous research and in-depth interviews with parents, doctors, midwives, nurses, health care administrators, and scientists, Margulis’s impassioned and eloquent critique is shocking, groundbreaking, and revelatory. The Business of Baby arms parents with the information they need to make informed decisions about their own health and the health of their infants. Editorial Reviews From Booklist Readers who are skeptical about mainstream medicine will love this book. Margulis, a journalist with a PhD in English and four children, begins her story with some scary-sounding facts: Every year more than 700 U.S. women die in childbirth, more than 25,000 of 4.3 million U.S. babies born each year will die before they turn one, and eight out of 1,000 U.S. infants will not live to age five. Margulis raises many valid questions: Why do more than 1.4 million U.S. women each year give birth via cesarean section? Why do U.S. dads often get no time off from work after the birth of a baby when fathers in Norway get 12 weeks of parental leave at full pay? She also asks whether doctors make too many of their decisions based on the profit motive. Unfortunately, she may unnecessarily alarm some pregnant moms about everything from vaccines (she particularly dislikes giving the hepatitis B immunizationto newborns) to ultrasounds (she cites a hypothesis that they may trigger autism). It’s not a balanced book, but it is a thought-provoking one that will motivate women to ask why before blindly agreeing to everything their doctor orders. --Karen Springen Review “Pregnancy and childbirth are wildly vulnerable times, and one is desperate to put one's faith in the doctor. Jennifer Margulis reveals why that trust is sometimes misplaced, and helps us to make wise choices when the stakes are high. This is a must-read book for parents and parents-to-be,and for the medical professionals who care for us.” (Harriet Lerner, Ph.D. author of The Dance of Anger and Marriage Rules) "A new mother's first instinct is to protect her newborn. But how can she best do that in a consumer culture so focused on its bottom line? The Business of Babyexposes some hard and shocking facts about how even the most well-meaning American parents unwittingly buy into systems that do documented harm. Thought-provoking and exhaustively researched, this book is destined to inspire much-needed dialogue about the current American way of birthing and caring for our young." (Hope Edelman bestselling author of Motherless Daughters) “Jennifer Margulis's searing and well-researched exposé is a must-read for expectant mothers. Whether she is discussing common obstetric practices, circumcision, vaccination, breastfeeding, bottlefeeding, diapering, or choosing a pediatrician, she points the way to rational, health-based decision-making.” (Ina May Gaskin) “Worthyof close consideration by parents.” (Kirkus)
