This is the first installment of a multi-part exploration of Dr. Grantly Dick-Read’s valuation of faith over evidence-based medicine. A new installment will be released weekly.
“There is a gulf between the limitation of science and the source of an omniscience which gives life and guides us in the usage of faculties beyond our comprehension.” [1]
-Dr. Grantly Dick-Read
It is a generally accepted trope that science and religion, or in this case, medicine and faith, are on opposing teams; playing the same game but involved in constant rivalry with one another. More recent research proposes that the rivalry between the two sides is not a rivalry as such, but it is more of an interconnected kinship where the two cannot be separated without losing the full scope and context of the discussion involving faith and medicine,especially when we explore other physicians’ relationship with faith, both historically and contemporary. I will analyze the relationship between medicine and faith in the form of a case study of Dr. Grantly Dick-Read (1890-1959), author of Childbirth Without Fear (1942) as an exemplar of this intersection.
Read coined the term “natural childbirth” in an era when childbirth was moving from home to hospital where it was being medically managed. Read was a self-styled prophet who claimed to have received his revelation of “Natural Childbirth” from God,and who preached his gospel to mothers throughout the UK and eventually Western Europe, America and South Africa. His ideas, though not truly unique, met with great acclaim from the white, middle class, mothers who used his method in the mid-20th century. Read’s critics and detractors, both past and contemporary, view his theory, method and practice as unscientific, potentially dangerous and contrary to the obstetrical practices at the time.
I propose that the medicine versus faith argument presented by the medical community and by other scholars is incomplete and narrow, not only with regards to Read’s writings but also within the larger conversation of how faith and belief intersect with medicine. Read’s work illustrates the complex nature of this discussion and of the narrowness of the idea that these are incompatible and opposing positions, specifically in the context of pregnancy and childbirth.
Next up: Faith vs. Medicine – Conflict Theory or False Dilemma?
[1]Read, G. D. (1942), Childbirth without fear, p. xv
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