In this chapter we analyse health as a social concept, focusing specifically on the role of women in medicine as subjective and passive elements of medical practice. This approach will serve as the basis of our analysis of the use of epidural analgesia during childbirth, which is explored in the second part of the chapter. In the first part we deal with pain as a social element and provide an overview of the history of pain and the evolution of treatment for pain.

Peer Reviewed