@article {Woodmedhum-2017-011417, author = {Whitney Wood}, title = {Shifting understandings of labour pain in Canadian medical history}, elocation-id = {medhum-2017-011417}, year = {2018}, doi = {10.1136/medhum-2017-011417}, publisher = {Institute of Medical Ethics}, abstract = {While pain in childbirth is a universal, cross-cultural, biological reality, individual experiences and perceptions of this pain are historically and culturally specific. At the turn of the 20th century{\textemdash}a key period in terms of both the medicalisation of birth and the professionalisation of obstetrics in the Canadian context{\textemdash}Canadian physicians understood and conceptualised {\textquoteleft}birth pangs{\textquoteright} in a number of varying (and at times competing) ways. Throughout the 19th century, doctors emphasised the broader utility of pain as a diagnostic tool and a physiologically necessary part of the birthing process. With the advent of anaesthetics, including chloroform and ether, however, a growing subset of the medical profession simultaneously lauded the professional, physiological, and humanitarian benefits of pain relief. By the first decades of the 20th century, shifting understandings of labour pain{\textemdash}and particularly growing distinctions between {\textquoteleft}pain{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}contraction{\textquoteright} in mainstream medical discourses{\textemdash}underscored the increasing use of obstetric anaesthesia. Drawing on a broad range of medical texts and professional literature, and focusing on a key historical moment when the introduction and adoption of a new medical technology opened up possibilities for professional debate, this paper unpacks both the micropolitics and the macropolitics of shifting understandings of labour pain in modern Canadian medical history.}, issn = {1468-215X}, URL = {https://mh.bmj.com/content/early/2018/06/07/medhum-2017-011417}, eprint = {https://mh.bmj.com/content/early/2018/06/07/medhum-2017-011417.full.pdf}, journal = {Medical Humanities} }