This ambitious sourcebook surveys both the traditional basis for and the present state of indigenous womens reproductive health in Mexico and Central America. Noted practitioners, specialists, and researchers take an interdisciplinary approach to analyze the multiple barriers for access and care to indigenous women that had been complicated by longstanding gender inequities, poverty, stigmatization, lack of education, war, obstetrical violence, and differences in language and customs, all of which contribute to unnecessary maternal morbidity and mortality. Emphasis is placed on indigenous cultures and folkwaysfrom traditional midwives and birth attendants to indigenous botanical medication and traditional healing and spiritual practicesand how they may effectively coexist with modern biomedical care. Throughout these chapters, the main theme is clear: the rights of indigenous women to culturally respective reproductive health care and a successful pregnancy leading to the birth of healthy children.
A sampling of the topics:
- Motherhood and modernization in a Yucatec village
- Maternal morbidity and mortality in Honduran Miskito communities
- Solitary birth and maternal mortality among the Rarámuri of Northern Mexico
Maternal morbidity and mortality in the rural Trifino region of Guatemala- The traditional Ngäbe-Buglé midwives of Panama
- Characterizations of maternal death among Mayan women in Yucatan, Mexico
- Unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and unmet need in Guatemala
Maternal Death and Pregnancy-Related Morbidity Among Indigenous Women of Mexico and Central America is designed for anthropologists and other social scientists, physicians, nurses and midwives, public health specialists, epidemiologists, global health workers, international aid organizations and NGOs, governmental agencies, administrators, policy-makers, and others involved in the planning and implementation of maternal and reproductive health care of indigenous women in Mexico and Central America, and possibly other geographical areas.
Precolumbian Pregnancy Archaeological & Cultural Foundations for
Motherhood & Childbearing in Ancient Mesoamerica.- Maternal death in Ancient
Mesoamerica the Archaeological Record.- Curse of Cure? The phenomenon of
Obeah Pregnancy among Belizean Maya.- Managing Mortality: On-the-Ground
Practices of Traditional Birth Attendants in Southern Belize.-The Role of
Botanicals and Plant-based Diet in Maternal Health and Wellbeing of
Indigenous Women in Mesoamerica.- Contemporary Issues in the training,
practice and Implementation of midwifery for indigenous women in Mexico.-
Established Models of Midwifery Care and Education for Indigenous Women in
Mexico: Luna Maya, CASA, and San Juan Chamula Birth Centers.- Reconquista:
Obstetric Violence and the Under-reporting of Labor Complications and
Interventions in Yucatan and Quintana Roo.- Contextualizing poor maternal
health outcomes: local perceptions of maternal mortality in Honduran Miskito
communities.- Maternal morbidity and mortality in rural South Western
Guatemala: Analysis of the problems, strategic successes and failures.- What
has happened with intercultural approaches in maternal health? The case of
the health system response to indigenous populations in Chiapas 1994-2015.-
Representations and social practices regarding contraception between
indigenous populations in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. Continuity,
discontinuity and recent change.- Characteristics of maternal death among
Mayan women in the Yucatan, Mexico.- Problems with epidemiological
surveillance and under-reporting of maternal deaths in Yucatan.- Inclusion on
traditional midwives in biomedical health care programs in Guatemala and
Mexico: Challenges and opportunities.- Medicalization through the lens of
childbirth on a Guatemalan plantation.- Pregnancy, Birth and Babies:
Motherhood and Modernization in a Yucatec Village.- Social support and social
suffering: uterine health among indigenous women in Mexico.- Misconceived
Mortality: Solitary birth and maternal mortality among the Rarįmuri of
Northern Mexico.- Supply, demand, and unmet need: Women and family planning
in Central America.- Community-Based participatory research and interventions
among the Ngäbe-Buglé of Panama.- Clinicians working alongside medicinal
doctors and lay midwives in Panama.- Structural violence as a cause of
maternal mortality and morbidity among indigenous women in Chiapas, Mexico.-
Changing definitions of 'an obstetric emergency': a tale of two
countries.- Guatemala unsafe abortion practices.- HIV/AIDS topic in Central
America Q'eqchi' Maya pregnancy and birth practices, the loss of female
healers and midwives in the Maya community, and the need for revitalizing
these healing traditions to provide healthcare to remote indigenous
communities in Belize and other parts of Central America.- The emerging role
of the Comadrona, Traditional birth attendant, as a broker between ancient
cultural beliefs and efforts to improve maternal care in the Mayan
highlands.- Cultural beliefs and acceptability of family planning among
indigenous women in the Mayan highlands of Guatemala.- Constructions of
motherhood: Problematizing development discourses, transnational advocacy and
indigeneity in Guatemala.- Poverty, local perceptions, and access to
services: Understanding obstetric choice in a Maya Kaqchikel community in
Guatemala.- Maternal health in Guatemala from a Mayan-indigenous
perspective.- Disparity in access to pregnancy-related care and health
outcomes between indigenous and non-indigenous women in Guatemala.- Awaiting
titles, mortality of indigenous mothers in Mexico.- A Quiet Inquisition.-
Abortion prohibition in Nicaragua and El Salvador.
David Schwartz, MD, MS Hyg, FCAP, has an educational background in anthropology, medicine, public health, and epidemiology. He specializes in obstetrical and perinatal pathology and medical epidemiology, and has a professional interest in reproductive health, maternal disease, and maternal death in both resource-rich and resource-poor countries. Dr. Schwartz has organized and directed large national and international investigations of womens health, obstetrical disease, and perinatal pathology and epidemiology for many government agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and several foreign governments, and has consulted and taught in these specialties in resource-poor nations. He has conducted extensive research in obstetrical pathology, and has been the recipient of grants from the NIH, CDC, and the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. He has a new multi-authoredtextbook regarding maternal morbidity and mortality in developing nations that was published in October 2015, and was previously a co-editor of an award-winning 2-volume medical textbook on infectious and tropical diseases. He has authored 119 peer-reviewed articles as well as 47 chapters in his specialty areas in the peer-reviewed medical literature. Dr. Schwartz is an experienced editor, currently serving on the Editorial Boards of three major international journals, and as an associate editor for one of them. He has previously taught at several universities, and is currently clinical professor of Pathology at the Georgia Regents University-Medical College of Georgia. He is also a member of the Directors Council of the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he additionally serves on the Scholarly Activities Committee.
