Parteras en Mérida. Una alternativa a la cesárea innecesaria

Abstract

Studies of midwifery tend to counterpose the practices of midwives against an idea of modernity. There is much ambivalence in how to confront modernity, and in the literature on midwifery this happens in at least two ways. First of all, studies with a health system focus seek to show how midwifery practices can be improved to meet the needs of the health system through training courses. In contrast, studies with a cultural focus tend to applaud and extol the midwife's indigenous knowledge and argue for preservation of traditional ways of knowing and healing practices. In this article, I confront an issue of modernity in childbirth -the high rates of cesarean- and show that the current practice of midwifery in Merida, Yucatan is imbedded within social processes which contend with the modern conceptualization of childbirth as a medical/technological procedure