Suzanne Arms | |
---|---|
Born | Suzanne Arms |
Occupation | Writer |
Citizenship | United States |
Alma mater | University of Rochester |
Subject | Childbirth, adoption |
Notable works | Immaculate deception (1977) |
Notable awards | Lamaze International Lifetime Achievement Award |
Suzanne Arms is an American writer. She has published seven books on childbirth and child care.
Arms was born in Summit, New Jersey, [1] and grew up on the East Coast of the United States. [2] Her parents were both teachers. [1] She received a BA in literature from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. She moved to Marin County, California to work as a teacher in nursery schools and in the Head Start Program. [1]
Her first book, A Season to be Born, was published in 1973. It was a diary of the birth of her daughter, with photographs by the baby's father, John Arms. [1]
A second book, Immaculate Deception: A New Look at Women and Childbirth in America, appeared in 1975, which became a best-seller, was a New York Times Best Book of the Year; [3] By 1979, it had sold more than 150,000 copies. [2]
Arms has described the precautions against risk in obstetric wards in the West as "just-in-case obstetrics". [4]
In 1978, with six other women, Arms started a birth center, The Birth Place, in Palo Alto, California; it was organized much as she had proposed in her 1975 book. It became a state-licensed facility in the year 1979. [5]
Arms has made documentary films on pregnancy and birth: she shot, directed, and produced Five Women, Five Births in the 1970s; [2] Giving Birth (35') was made in 1998. [6] She also directed and co-produced the film "Birth" with Christopher Carson, which is critical of the medical-pharmaceutical-hospital approach to birth, proposing a different approach.[ clarification needed][ citation needed]
Arms has been awarded the Lamaze International Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to the field of childbirth.[ citation needed]