Description
Book Synopsis 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-Lundberg’s chapter:
Largely maligned in reproductive anthropological literature as callous—if not brutal—self-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.
Table of Contents 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 Ágnes Geréb
Ágnes Geréb and Katalin Fábián
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 Çoker
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
