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De Vries discusses his book about Dutch maternity care

By David Gonnerman '90
March 30, 2005

Raymond De Vries, professor of sociology at St. Olaf College, recently discussed his new book, A Pleasing Birth: Midwives and Maternity Care in the Netherlands (Temple University Press, 2005), during a public forum at St. Olaf. The book, available from event sponsor the St. Olaf Bookstore, has been discounted 15 percent for the week of the reading.

"Women have long searched for a pleasing birth," says De Vries about his book. "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, he explains, 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 [the Netherlands'] most radical policy. Every other modern nation regards birth as too risky to occur outside a hospital setting," he says.

De Vries' book already has garnered excellent reviews. "In this detailed and thoughtful study, De Vries does much more than introduce us to the peculiar maternity care system of the Netherlands," writes Dr. Charles L. Bosk, professor of sociology and medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "He forces us to reexamine our assumptions about the way health care systems are organized, and offers new, and revolutionary, ways to think about health care reform. This is sociological analysis at its best."

Future St. Olaf Bookstore events include a visit on April 18 by Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad, author of A Hundred and One Days and the controversial The Bookseller of Kabul. On May 28, longtime Northfield residents Tom Porter and Bob Phelps will sign their book, The Greatest Game: Football at St. Olaf College 1893-2003, while World War II veteran and Northfield resident Bill Cupp signs his POW memoir, Wartime Journey: Bail-Out Over Belgium.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.