"My belly belongs to me" was the slogan still chanted by women's rights activists in the 1970s, calling for self-determination. The female authors investigate the extent to which today's women are self-determinant with respect to issues of health. A look into the practice of obstetrics shows how the withholding of information robs women of much of this self-determination before giving birth. Controversial stances on obstetrical interventions, stocktaking of trends in obstetrics alongside the "medical" handling of women in different stages of life are explored critically. Images of bodies, their transformation and changes in their claims to possession of their own bodies are discussed in the same vein as postmenopausal hormone treatment and reproductive medicine.
Prof. Dr. med. Beate A. Schücking ist Rektorin der Universität Leipzig. Zuvor war sie Professorin für das Fachgebiet Gesundheits- und Krankheitslehre / Psychosomatik im Fachbereich Humanwissenschaften der Universität Osnabrück und Leiterin des Forschungsschwerpunktes Maternal Health.
