Tina Cassidy at the Book Festival

From 13 August. Originally published by ThreeWeeks.

There were only four men in this session by Tina Cassidy about her book 'Birth: A Surprising History Of How We Are Born', but there were plenty of women, mostly in groups, who cast significant glances to each other or nodded in agreement as Cassidy spoke. Drawing on her skills as a journalist and her personal experience giving birth to her first child, Cassidy has investigated differences in the way birth has been handled through time and around the world, juxtaposing developments in the Western world with the development of feminism. She has few compliments for obstetricians, placing today's rising C-section rates beside a line of gruesome interferences that begins with the 'twilight sleep' used earlier in the century, when women were strapped down and drugged to oblivion. Cringe-inducing and important.