When+and+Why?

WHEN AND WHY HAS THIS TREND OCCURRED?



Obstetrics is a male dominated field. Male meaning: someone unable to bear children, someone who will never experience labor pain, someone who will never have to have a c-section or be personally impacted by such a decision. The shift from Midwife to Obstetrician occurred early in the eighteenth century through the nineteenth centuries. Relinquishing their territory was not something midwives did voluntarily; rather it happened as a result of questions of women’s place and innovations in technology. Men’s access to education and technology provided them with an advantage over female midwives. Female midwives and women in general were denied medical education. They were not exposed, nor allowed to use certain technologies. In order for midwives to keep their job, they were forbidden from practicing medicine. Using technology was practicing medicine; midwives could not use technology to ease labor or to diagnose gynecological problems. New technologies were in the realm of the male doctors. These male doctors could then promise better treatment, easier labor, etc. as a way of asserting their dominance in the field. This dominance was over women, their bodies, and their body’s processes. The use of the vaginal speculum, forceps and anesthesia helped to exert men’s control over women’s bodies. The speculum, forceps and anesthesia helped to exert men’s control over women’s bodies. The speculum allowed men sight in addition to touch. Forceps brought obstetricians into almost every birth that occurred. Anesthesia put women to sleep and let them forget their births, giving their doctors more control over the birthing process. Homebirth provides many benefits beyond a safer birth. Some families choose homebirth because they believe that their home is the most appropriate place for a new baby to enter their family circle. Some families choose homebirth because they want control over all the circumstances of the birth, including who is present and what the caregiver does to the mother and baby.