African American midwifery in the South dialogues of birth, race, and memory
- Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England | Harvard University Press | 1998
- 300 Pages Includes bibliographical references and index.
Starting at the turn of the century, most African American midwives in the South were gradually excluded from reproductive health care. Gertrude Fraser shows how physicians, public health personnel, and state legislators mounted a campaign ostensibly to improve maternal and infant health, especially in rural areas. They brought traditional midwives under the control of a supervisory body, and eventually eliminated them. In the writings and programs produced by these physicians and public health officials, Fraser finds a universe of ideas about race, gender, the relationship of medicine to society, and the status of the South in the national political and social economies.
Fraser also studies this experience through dialogues of memory. She interviews members of a rural Virginia African American community that included not just retired midwives and their descendants, but anyone who lived through this transformation in medical care--especially the women who gave birth at home attended by a midwife. She compares these narrations to those in contemporary medical journals and public health materials, discovering contradictions and ambivalence: was the midwife a figure of shame or pride? How did one distance oneself from what was now considered "superstitious" or "backward" and at the same time acknowledge and show pride in the former unquestioned authority of these beliefs and practices?
In an important contribution to African American studies and anthropology, African American Midwifery in the South brings new voices to the discourse on the hidden world of midwives and birthing.
0-674-00852-9
= Common terms and phrases African Ameri African American community African American health African American midwives African American women Americans in Green argued baby Beardsley 1990 behavior believed belly band birth certificate birth registration body child childbirth clinic cord cultural death delivered doctor Elizabeth City County ethnography example experience grandmother Green River County Harris home births hospital individual knowledge labor maternal and infant maternal deaths maternal mortality medical personnel medicine menstruation mid midwife problem midwife's Mongeau mortality rates mother wit narratives Negro newborn obstetrical offered older African Americans older informants older residents older women past patients perspective physi physicians placenta Plecker postpartum period practice pregnancy prenatal prenatal care professional programs public health nurses public health officials public health personnel race racial racial integrity recalled registrar reproductive response rituals role rural scientific social South southern spiritual suggests tion Virginia Medical Monthly vital statistics wanted white women wives woman Common terms and phrases African Ameri African American community African American health African American midwives African American women Americans in Green argued baby Beardsley 1990 behavior believed belly band birth certificate birth registration body child childbirth clinic cord cultural death delivered doctor Elizabeth City County ethnography example experience grandmother Green River County Harris home births hospital individual knowledge labor maternal and infant maternal deaths maternal mortality medical personnel medicine menstruation mid midwife problem midwife's Mongeau mortality rates mother wit narratives Negro newborn obstetrical offered older African Americans older informants older residents older women past patients perspective physi physicians placenta Plecker postpartum period practice pregnancy prenatal prenatal care professional programs public health nurses public health officials public health personnel race racial racial integrity recalled registrar reproductive response rituals role rural scientific social South southern spiritual suggests tion Virginia Medical Monthly vital statistics wanted white women wives woman
--Afro American midwives Virginia History 20th century. --Midwifery Virginia History 20th century. -- Childbirth Virginia History 20th century