Nikki:  Oh, I'm so glad you raised this point.  My doctoral advisor and good
friend authored the book    THE ROCKAFELLER MEDICINE MEN (by E. Richard
Brown) detailing your points with factual data.  Another book on the topic
of the monopolistic consorted efforts of the medical establishement,
published shortly after and winning a Pulitzer prize, is THE SOCIAL
TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN MEDICINE (by Paul Starr).  I highly recommend
reading both of these to any of you who are interested in learning about how
medicine rose to the level its current status.  I also highly recommend
Marjorie Tew's book SAFER CHILDBIRTH (mentioned it last week) and Robbie
Davis Floyd's work  for the specifics on obs.  For anyone who thinks it's an
accident that, at least here in the US, people seem to pray to the medical
deity, I beg to differ.  That is not to say that I haven't used my share of
medical interventions...I just recognize that there was once a cat fight
amongst the professionals now at the top.

Chris Hafner-Eaton, PhD, MPH, CHES, IBCLC    [log in to unmask]
mom, wife, educator, lactation consultant, researcher, scientist, author,
organic gardener, photographer, lapidary creator, lousy cleaner.

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