Vai al contenuto principale della pagina

African American midwifery in the South : dialogues of birth, race, and memory / / Gertrude Jacinta Fraser



(Visualizza in formato marc)    (Visualizza in BIBFRAME)

Autore: Fraser Gertrude Jacinta Visualizza persona
Titolo: African American midwifery in the South : dialogues of birth, race, and memory / / Gertrude Jacinta Fraser Visualizza cluster
Pubblicazione: Cambridge, Mass. : , : Harvard University Press, , 1998
Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (x, 287 pages)
Disciplina: 618.2/0233
Soggetto topico: African American midwives - Virginia - History - 20th century
Midwifery - Virginia - History - 20th century
Childbirth - Virginia - History - 20th century
Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-282) and index.
Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- African American Midwifery in the South -- Prologue -- I THE BODY POLITIC -- II AUTHORITATIVE KNOWLEDGE -- III MEMORY AND EXPERIENCE -- Notes -- References -- Index
Sommario/riassunto: Starting at the turn of the century, most African American midwives in the South were gradually excluded from reproductive health care. Gertrude Fraser shows how physicians, public health personnel, and state legislators mounted a campaign ostensibly to improve maternal and infant health, especially in rural areas. They brought traditional midwives under the control of a supervisory body, and eventually eliminated them. In the writings and programs produced by these physicians and public health officials, Fraser finds a universe of ideas about race, gender, the relationship of medicine to society, and the status of the South in the national political and social economies. Fraser also studies this experience through dialogues of memory. She interviews members of a rural Virginia African American community that included not just retired midwives and their descendants, but anyone who lived through this transformation in medical care -- especially the women who gave birth at home attended by a midwife. She compares these narrations to those in contemporary medical journals and public health materials, discovering contradictions and ambivalence: was the midwife a figure of shame or pride? How did one distance oneself from what was now considered "superstitious" or "backward" and at the same time acknowledge and show pride in the former unquestioned authority of these beliefs and practices? In an important contribution to African American studies and anthropology, African American Midwifery in the South brings new voices to the discourse on the hidden world of midwives and birthing.
Titolo autorizzato: African American midwifery in the South  Visualizza cluster
ISBN: 0-674-03720-0
Formato: Materiale a stampa
Livello bibliografico Monografia
Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
Record Nr.: 9910778440703321
Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II
Opac: Controlla la disponibilità qui