More than half of American women gave birth at home in the early 1900s, while around 99 percent of all births take place in hospitals today. This is an example of

Question

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The shift from home births to hospital births illustrates the process of medicalization, which occurs when a non-medical issue or experience becomes defined and treated as a medical problem. In this case, childbirth was medicalized as an inherently risky process that required medical intervention and supervision, leading to the near-universal adoption of hospital births.

More Than Half of American Women Gave Birth at Home