Revelation of Childbirth: The Principles and Practice of Natural Childbirth

men and women. Dr. Read's premises is that pain is not a normal accompaniment of a physiological process and that pain therefore seems out of keeping with the laws of Nature in a process so vital to the survival of the race as reproduction. Dr. Read's early scientific training gave_ himan interest in 'the influence of the sympathetic nervous system upon the activities of the viscera, the_ interpretation of painful stimuli, the visceral reactions to emotional stateswhich he has used to good purpose in interpreting the problem of pain during confinement in indicating how pain can be eliminated. The book is stimulating not only because of the success which has attended the methods advocated, but because of the evidence it affords of questioning much of the accepted teaching of past generations, the deductions made from acute and careful observation of the phenomenaof labour, and the indication of new fields for exploration and investigation in the achievement of painless childbirth and radiant motherhood.