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Acknowledgments
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aCknoWledGmenTs I could not have written this book without the help of a lot of people, many of whom I do not know. I am very grateful to all those who shared their birth stories with me and who got excited when they heard about this project and encouraged me to write this book. When I first presented this material to the American Association of the History of Medicine, men came forward with theirown personal birth stories and commentary; this outpouring of interest and help prompted me to continue to pursue the men’s side of the story. I appreciate all the eager cooperation of the hundreds of people, men and women, who took the time to communicate with me. My mother, Sally H. Walzer, whose accounts of her harrowing taxicab ride while in labor with me during my premature arrival, first sparked my interest in this subject.Two of her childbirth stories (one real, one not) that I heard repeatedly as I was growing up are included in this book. My father, Joseph P. Walzer, who was sent home to await his children’s arrivals, did not get to witness birth itself but modeled men’s connections to their families and helped me understand “masculine domesticity” in the mid-twentiethcentury period. My husband, Lewis A. Leavitt, partnerextraordinaire, provided encouragement and support at each step in the lives of our two children, including attending their deliveries, and in the development of this project.To all my family members I owe my greatest thanks for support and encouragement over the years. 368 * aCknoWledGmenTs Susan Sacharski, the archivist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Archives in Chicago , deserves special thanks. She opened the door for me to use the hospital’s fathers’ books and first led me to this subject. I received financial support from the University of Wisconsin Foundation, the University of Wisconsin Rupple Bascom Chair Professorship , and the Women’s Studies Feminist Scholar Fellowship. Many researchers, during their graduate-student years, helped the project along. I am grateful for the efforts of Katie Benton, Bridget Collins, Hilary Domush, Elizabeth Evans, David Herzberg, Judy Kaplan, Abigail Markwyn, David Meshoulam, Camilo Quinteros, Kendra Smith-Howard, and Karen Walloch. Other friends and colleagues gave generously of their time—and kept their eyes out for birth accounts. I am happy to thank those who added important contributions: Rima Apple, Beth Black, Charlotte Borst, Jay Chervenak, David Courtwright, Susan Davidson, Robert Domush, Sandra Eiseman, Laura Ettinger, Jessica Feierman, Susan Friedman, Vanessa Northington Gamble, Linda Gordon, David I. Leavitt, Lewis A. Leavitt, Marnie R. Leavitt, Sarah A. Leavitt, Gerda Lerner, Russell F. Lewis, James Lindblade, Kari Niedermaier, Ronald Numbers, Ann Peckham, Rebecca Jo Plant, Leslie Reagan, Naomi Rogers, Gloria Sarto, Susan Smith, Micaela Sullivan-Fowler, Andrea Tone, and Jackie Wolf. I appreciate the collegiality and insights provided by the faculty members in the Departments of Medical History and Bioethics, History of Science, and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin. I am grateful for the help of the staff in the Medical History and Bioethics Department led by the cheerful assistance of Jean von Allmen and including Lorraine Rondon and Sharon Russ. I acknowledge the University of Wisconsin Institutional Review Board for its evaluation of my project and its granting of exemption status. Joan Mathys, of MJM Picture and Film Research in Washington, D.C., took over the job of securing permission rights for the illustrations, and I am extremely grateful for all her efforts. A particular thanks is due to the hundreds of men and women who answered my call for birth experiences in the New York Times Sunday Book Review section, the New York Review of Books, On Wisconsin, and the Washington Post. These personal stories, many of which are quoted in this book, added depth and breadth to my understanding of laymen’s activities in American hospital waiting, labor, and delivery rooms. The respondents generously offered their accounts in a spirit of cooperation and support for the project that spurred me on; at the same time it let me know that there were other people who felt as passionately as I do about the significance of childbirth. Parts of this book previouslyappeared in print. I am grateful for permission to reprint a significant portion of Chapter 1, which appeared as “The Medicalization of Childbirth in the Twentieth Century,” Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, ser. 5, 11, no. 4 (December 1989): 299–319. Portions of the Introduction and...