Based on her 12 year study of a free-standing birth center, Turkel analyzes the medical model of childbirth in contrast to the midwifery model. In the medical model of birth, women are defined as patients and birth takes place in hospitals where women have little, if any, control over their experience. The midwifery model views birth as a healthy process where midwives act as teachers and guides for women during pregnancy and birth, helping women and their families to shape and define their experience to meet their needs and expectations. Under existing legal and cultural circumstances, free-standing birth centers face a dilemma. They must continually accomodate the medical model while trying to maintain the midwifery model and give women an option to home birth or to hospital birth.
Author(s): Kathleen Doherty Turkel
Year: 1995
Language: English
Pages: 184
Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 10
1 Introduction......Page 12
Technocratic Perspectives......Page 24
Political-Economic Critiques......Page 27
Scientific Objectivity as Ideology......Page 29
Science, Technology, and Childbirth......Page 35
The Hospital, Risk, and Technology......Page 42
Scientific Rationale......Page 51
The Experiences of Birthing Women......Page 56
Childbirth as a Feature of Social Relations......Page 60
4 The Midwifery Approach to Birth......Page 64
The Midwifery Model......Page 65
Professional Autonomy and the Role of Law......Page 68
Institutional Control: The Case of Nurse-Midwifery Associates......Page 75
Consumer Involvement......Page 79
Discussion......Page 81
5 Free-Standing Birth Centers......Page 84
Birth Centers and the Medical Model: Issues of Power and Control......Page 86
Statistical Data: The National Birth Center Study......Page 92
Discussion......Page 95
The Setting......Page 98
Babyplace......Page 101
A Different Strategy......Page 105
Discussion......Page 114
Introduction......Page 120
Basic Operation of the Birth Center......Page 121
Birth Center Clientele......Page 128
Birth Stories......Page 131
Discussion......Page 138
8 The Birth Center and the Medical Model: Accommodation and Resistance......Page 140
Third-Party Reimbursement......Page 141
Malpractice Insurance......Page 144
Opposition from the Board of Medicine......Page 149
Dwindling Client Base......Page 151
Discussion......Page 154
9 Reappropriating Birth......Page 156
Constrained Progress......Page 161
Reappropriating Birth: Short-Term and Long-Term Goals......Page 162
The Importance of the Birth Center for Women and Families......Page 166
Bibliography......Page 170
C......Page 176
G......Page 177
M......Page 178
P......Page 179
U......Page 180
W......Page 181
