Document Detail


Beyond the simple economics of cesarean section birthing: women's resistance to social inequality.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  12572770     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
This research explored the reasons for women's preferences for cesarean section births in Pelotas, Brazil. It is argued that women strategize and appropriate both medical knowledge and the technology of cesarean sections as a creative form of responding to larger public debates (and the practices that produced them) on the need for and causes of (de)medicalization. Questioning the reasons why some women engage more actively in this process than others elucidates the ways local forms of power engage gender, economic and medical ideologies. The current debate on why some women prefer c-section deliveries, or indeed if they really do at all, has diverted attention from the utility of the technology itself. This paper argues that for some women, the effort to medicalize the birth process represents a practical solution to problems found within the medical system itself. I end by exploring the socio-biological conditions that have produced a need for the technology.
Authors:
Dominique P Béhague
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Culture, medicine and psychiatry     Volume:  26     ISSN:  0165-005X     ISO Abbreviation:  Cult Med Psychiatry     Publication Date:  2002 Dec 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2003-02-07     Completed Date:  2003-04-16     Revised Date:  2006-11-15    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7707467     Medline TA:  Cult Med Psychiatry     Country:  Netherlands    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  473-507     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Maternal Health Programme, Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format     Download EndNote     Download BibTex
MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Attitude to Health / ethnology
Brazil
Capitalism
Cesarean Section / psychology*,  utilization*
Culture
Female
Health Policy
Health Services Accessibility
Humans
Patient Participation
Patient Satisfaction / ethnology*
Physician-Patient Relations
Politics
Power (Psychology)
Pregnancy
Pregnant Women / ethnology,  psychology*
Social Justice
Sociology, Medical

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


Previous Document:  Regional variation in Latino descriptions of susto.
Next Document:  Laminar distribution of the pathological changes in the cerebral cortex in variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob...