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Not of Woman Born: Representations of Caesarean Birth
in Medieval and Renaissance Culture
by RENATE BLUMENFELD-KOSINSKI
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990
This book studies Caesarean birth from an interdisciplinary perspective: I look
at the social and cultural context of the operation, its medical reality, its
pictorial sources, and legends and miracle stories involving Caesareans. One of
the focal points is the question of who was allowed to do Caesareans: midwives
or male surgeons? The Caesarean is revealed as a touchstone for understanding
male/female competition in the medical profession and for the role "unnatural"
birth played in the medieval and Renaissance imagination.
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