PsycCRITIQUES: Fighting for Respect: Midwives and the Medicalization of Childbirth in Guatemala

Although birth is considered one of the few universals of the human experience, Sheila Cosminsky illustrates through its rituals and traditions how childbirth is culturally informed. Drawing on decades of fieldwork in a Guatemalan finca (plantation) and close connections with the two main comadronas (midwives) on that plantation, Cosminsky provides vivid examples of how pregnancy, childbirth, and to some extent motherhood are experienced by those who call the finca home. A central theme of the book is how the medicalization of childbirth—the promotion of hospital deliveries and medical intervention—has left both comadronas and mothers disempowered.