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Livia Wicks' book, "Sumud: Birth, Oral History, and Persistence in Palestine," explores the history of Israeli assaults on Palestinian birthing across Occupied Palestine. The book focuses on the concept of sumud, or steadfastness, against Israeli occupation, and draws on oral histories, interviews, and participant observation to examine shifts in birthing practices in Palestine. Wicks also highlights the depoliticized nature of women's experiences of enclosure after birth and includes the perspectives of midwives in her narrative. The book also explores the history of oral history in Palestine, particularly its emergence in the 1970s and its gendered and classed nature. Overall, the book sheds light on the everyday violence faced by pregnant women and mothers in Palestine and emphasizes the importance of unity and resistance in the face of state violence. [Extracted from the article]

"Abortion Pills Go Global: Reproductive Freedom across Borders" by Sydney Calkin is a groundbreaking book that explores the global movement of medication abortion (MA). The author highlights the significance of abortion pills as a non-clinical alternative to surgical abortion, particularly in the face of government efforts to control and restrict abortion. Calkin argues that MA operates as an unstoppable force, using established pipelines between countries where they are legally produced but illicitly supplied. The book examines case studies from the United States, Poland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland, showcasing the impact of MA on abortion care within restrictive systems. It also emphasizes the importance of intersectional theories of change and the need for a demedicalized model of abortion care. [Extracted from the article]

"Reproduction Reconceived: Family Making and the Limits of Choice after Roe v. Wade" by Sara Matthiesen explores the limitations of reproductive choice for women in the United States after the landmark Supreme Court case. The author argues that access to legal abortion alone does not grant women full autonomy, as they also need resources to create families. The book examines various challenges faced by women in family-making, including legal biases against lesbian parents, obstacles faced by incarcerated women, healthcare inequalities, and the lack of state support such as paid parental leave and childcare. The author also highlights the efforts of anti-abortion organizations in providing assistance to pregnant women, albeit with strings attached. The book concludes that barriers to family-making persist, including recent threats to abortion access and ongoing healthcare inequalities. [Extracted from the article]

As the author notes, the "options" are to "end the pregnancy or continue it" (1), implying that in the United States where there is a political and social contention over abortion, people believe that pregnant women must choose between having an abortion and continuing their pregnancy. Abortion became "unchooseable" for women because of gender, class, and racial disparity, restriction on abortion insurance coverage, and the marginalization of abortion from mainstream healthcare. The cultural narrative of abortion defines abortion as killing, and some pregnant women are unlikely to choose abortion for this reason. [Extracted from the article]

Fisher's first book I Medical Research for Hire i ([4]) set the stage for exploring private sector pharmaceutical clinical trials and the political economy that incentivizes non-academic physicians to implement these trials. Whereas the first book focused on the professional role that physicians take on in managing private sector drug trials, this book illuminates the political and economic contexts of I participants i enrolled in Phase 1 trials. Why are there a disproportionate number of Black and Latinx men across the United States volunteering for Phase 1 pharmaceutical trials - the riskiest phase of a drug trial?. [Extracted from the article]

Second, the demographic transition in India is accompanied by the decline of child sex ratio (under seven years of age) from 927 to 919 (number of girls per 1000 boys) during 2001 and 2011, which is a serious cause of concern in coming years (p. 27). The recent book ' I The Demographic and Development Divide in India: A District Level Analyses' i , looks the critical nexus of demographic dividends, social and economic development during last few decades in India. [Extracted from the article]

The book "History of Midwives in Spain" by Dolores Ruiz-Berdún offers a detailed insight into the evolution and professionalism of midwives throughout the history of Spain. The book addresses topics such as the antiquity of the profession, the different ways to access it in the 19th and 20th centuries, the rivalry between qualified midwives and women without a title, and the confrontation between midwives and physician-surgeons. It also explores the personal characteristics of midwives and traditional birth attendants, as well as descriptions of their work in urban and rural settings. The book provides testimonies about the methods used in childbirth and the instruments employed. The text discusses the history of traditional birth attendants in Spain and their evolution over time. It mentions that traditional birth attendants also performed legal and juridical functions, such as determining if a woman had recently given birth or in cases of rape. However, not all of them enjoyed a good reputation and they were associated with witches and sorceresses. Over time, the place of childbirth shifted from homes to specialized institutions, such as hospitals and maternity houses. The danger of puerperal fever is highlighted, which caused the death of many women until its origin was understood and remedies were found. The creation of shelters for pregnant women during the Civil War and the implementation of the Infant and Maternal Health Law in 1941 are also mentioned. The text concludes by emphasizing the importance of midwives in women's and families' health education. [Extracted from the article]

Her husband's premature death is only the beginning of an expectant mother's nightmare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In domestic adoption in the contemporary U.S., an expectant mother often selects the future parent(s) of the child she will give birth to - signaling the potential for a continuing relationship between the child's adoptive and birth kin. Mariner coins the concept of "intimate speculation" to characterize the emotional and financial investments in future possibilities made by expectant mothers, prospective parents, and adoption professionals alike (p. 7). In 2005, Illinois legislated that adoption agencies be not-for-profit (explicitly and legally de-linking kinship from economy), and small private agencies had to buy out, or take on a debt to, their owners. [Extracted from the article]

Touch in Social Interaction: Touch, Language, and Bod y By Asta Cekaite and Lorenza Mondada (Routledge, 2021) There is something especially poignant about reading a book about touching practices during a global pandemic in which people's distance from each other is restricted, where physical contact is nonexistent or significantly reduced, and under conditions combining caution, avoidance, and rigorous hygiene practices whenever shared objects and spaces must be handled. The introductory chapter of I Touch in Social Interaction i , written by editors Cekaite and Mondada, sets the context for the volume as situated in social, interactional, and phenomenological perspectives. REFERENCES 1 Touch in Social Interaction: Touch, Language, and Bod y By Asta Cekaite and Lorenza Mondada (Routledge, 2021). [Extracted from the article]

For example, Caldwell's analysis of health activism is an in-depth historical account of Black women's forging of intersectional strategies despite the more visible white feminist health activisms since the late 1980s. Through this long-standing history of Black feminist health activisms and other interventions, we learn about the exhaustive ways Black women, in fact, shaped health policy for Black women that also benefitted white women's reproductive health. For example, the implementation of I Quesito Cor i , or racial identification, collection data strategies within health records across a few major cities was integral for establishing racial/color visibility for racial inequity in health care and health policy. [Extracted from the article]

Societal pressures are the backdrop to this story about pregnant women and the decisions they make. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation of a dangerous virus that can threaten developing fetuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]