What is the best way to give birth? Some would argue ‘naturally’. But, as this wonderfully readable, page-turningly encyclopaedic history of the subject makes clear, ever since man u or woman u stood up, some kind of human intervention has been necessary to aid the process. It is just a question of whata Tina Cassidy is an experienced journalist who became obsessed by the subject of birth after having her son George in an emergency C-section. Were the doctors right? Did she had to go through what she did? Using her honed research skills, she set out on a quest through the libraries and hospitals of the world to find some answers. The result is a book that will open the eyes of even the most informed experts on the subject. From the frighteningly narrow pelvis of fossilized Lucy, our earliest ancestor, to the growing size of babies born to well-fed modern mothers, from the part played by midwives through the ages to the various ideas about the father’s role, Cassidy looks at every aspect of childbirth with admirable objectivity. Her book, though it provides no easy answers, is utterly gripping, occasionally shocking and essential reading for the human race.