For the first time ever in a social science work, obstetricians tell their own stories of training, practice, fear, and transformation in this the first of the 3-volume series The Anthropology of Obstetrics and Obstetricians: The Practice, Maintenance, and Reproduction of a Biomedical Profession.
These stories range from those of abortion providers to those of maternal-fetal medicine specialists. Several chapters tell the stories of obstetricians who have made paradigm shifts from technocratic to humanistic practices, the benefits and joys of these paradigm shifts, and the ostracism, bullying, and outright persecution these humanistic obstetricians have suffered.
This book is a must-read for students, social scientists, and all maternity care practitioners who seek to understand the ideologies and motives of individual obstetricians.
An excerpt from Kathleen Hanlon-Lundbergs chapter:
Largely maligned in reproductive anthropological literature as callousif not brutalself-serving effectors of the over-medicalization of childbirth, most obstetricians whom I know and have worked with are devoted to providing respectful, individualized care to their patients.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Series Overview: The Anthropology of Obstetrics and Obstetricians: The
Practice, Maintenance, and Reproduction of a Biomedical Profession
Robbie Davis-Floyd and Ashish Premkumar
Introduction: Obstetricians Speak
Robbie Davis-Floyd and Ashish Premkumar
Chapter
1. On Becoming an Abortion Provider in the US: An Autoethnographic
Account
Chapter
2. Abortion, Professional Identity, and Generational Meaning Making
among US Ob/Gyns
Rebecca Henderson, Chu J. Hsiao, and Jody Steinauer
Chapter
3. My Transformation from an Obstetrician to a Maternal-Fetal
Medicine Subspecialist: Autoethnographic Thoughts on Situated Knowledges and
Habitus
Ashish Premkumar
Chapter
4. Cold Steel and Sunshine: Ethnographic and Autoethnographic
Perspectives on Two Obstetric Careers in the US from Across the Chasm
Kathleen Hanlon-Lundberg
Chapter
5. An Awakening
Jesanna Cooper
Chapter
6. Repercussions of a Paradigm Shift in the Professional and
Personal Life of a Brazilian Obstetrician
Rosana Fontes
Chapter
7. The Bullying and Persecution of a Humanistic/Holistic
Obstetrician in Brazil: The Benefits and Costs of My Paradigm Shift
Ricardo Jones
Chapter
8. Hungarian Birth Models Seen Through the Prism of Prison: The
Journey of Įgnes Geréb
Įgnes Geréb and Katalin Fįbiįn
Chapter
9. Adopting the Midwifery Model of Care in India
Evita Fernandez
Chapter
10. Birth with No Regret in Turkey: The Natural Childbirth of the
21st Century
Hakan Ēoker
Chapter
11. Attempting to Maintain a Positive Awareness about Vaginal Breech
Birth in Australia
Andrew Bisits
Chapter
12. Mixing Modalities in My Technocratic/Humanistic Obstetric
Practice in the US: Ideology and Rationales
Marco Gianotti
Chapter
13. How an Obstetrician Promoted Respectful Care in Canada and in
the World
André Lalonde
Conclusions: What Have We Learned from Obstetricians?
Robbie Davis-Floyd and Ashish Premkumar
Index
Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD, Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston, Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology, and Senior Advisor to the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction, is a well-known medical/reproductive anthropologist and international speaker and researcher in transformational models in childbirth, midwifery, obstetrics, and reproduction.
