1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910554225803321

Autore

Cramer Renée Ann

Titolo

Birthing a movement : midwives, law, and the politics of reproductive care / / Renée Ann Cramer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, California : , : Stanford University Press, , [2021]

©2021

ISBN

1-5036-1450-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (290 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

344.730415

Soggetti

Midwives - United States - History

Social movements - United States

Midwives - United States - Legal status, laws, etc

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 History and Status of Midwives in the United States -- 2 Modern and Professional -- 3 Mostly Happy Accidents -- 4 Rights, Rules, and Regulation -- 5 Catching Babies and Catching Hell -- 6 Deep Transformations, Deep Contradictions -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Rich, personal stories shed light on midwives at the frontier of women's reproductive rights. Midwives in the United States live and work in a complex regulatory environment that is a direct result of state and medical intervention into women's reproductive capacity. In Birthing a Movement, Renée Ann Cramer draws on over a decade of ethnographic and archival research to examine the interactions of law, politics, and activism surrounding midwifery care. Framed by gripping narratives from midwives across the country, she parses out the often-paradoxical priorities with which they must engage-seeking formal professionalization, advocating for reproductive justice, and resisting state-centered approaches. Currently, professional midwives are legal and regulated in their practice in 32 states and illegal in eight, where their practice could bring felony convictions and penalties that include



imprisonment. In the remaining ten states, Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) are unregulated, but nominally legal. By studying states where CPMs have differing legal statuses, Cramer makes the case that midwives and their clients engage in various forms of mobilization-at times simultaneous, and at times inconsistent-to facilitate access to care, autonomy in childbirth, and the articulation of women's authority in reproduction. This book brings together literatures not frequently in conversation with one another, on regulation, mobilization, health policy, and gender, offering a multifaceted view of the experiences and politics of American midwifery, and promising rich insights to a wide array of scholars, activists, healthcare professionals alike.