Stockham was one of the first American women admitted to a medical society, and argued that the agonies of civilised childbirth were largely produced by corsets, bad diet and inactivity. Her regimen made the book a household name; some of her claims outran her evidence, and it remains a landmark of women’s health writing.
A hugely influential Victorian book that told women childbirth need not be an ordeal. Download the free EPUB.