On Wednesday, December 9, Paula Michaels, PhD, UI Department of History will present:  “Comrades in the Labor Room:  The International Story of the Lamaze Method.” 

Time:  5:30 to 6:30, December 9
Place:  Room 2032, Main Library
Light Refreshments will be served
Free and open to the public
For additional information, contact Ed Holtum; edwin-holtum@uiowa.edu; 335-9154

Professor Michaels writes, “The Lamaze method’s preparatory lessons, patterned breathing, and conscious relaxation became an integral part of American birth in the 1960s and 1970s, when the natural childbirth movement flourished. But, despite our familiarity with the Lamaze method, few know of its origins in the Soviet Union, the role of the French Communist Party in its promotion, and the deliberate efforts undertaken amid the Cold War to obscure these leftist ties in order to make the method palatable to Americans.”