All cultures are concerned with the business of childbirth, so much so that it can never be described as a purely physiological or even psychological event. This volume draws together work from a range of anthropologists and midwives who have found anthropological approaches useful in their work. Using case studies from a variety of cultural settings, the writers explore the centrality of the way time is conceptualized, marked and measured to the ways of perceiving and managing childbirth: how women, midwives and other birth attendants are affected by issues of power and control, but also actively attempt to change established forms of thinking and practice. The stories are engaging as well as critical and invite the reader to think afresh about time, and about reproduction.
List of Figures
Foreword
Ronnie Frankenberg
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART I: HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT
Chapter 1. From Tradition to Modernity: Time and Childbirth in Historical Perspective
Christine McCourt and Fiona Dykes
Chapter 2. Cosmologies, Concepts and Theories: Time and Childbirth in Cross-cultural Perspective
Christine McCourt
PART II: TIME AND CHILDBIRTH PRACTICES
Chapter 3. Counting Time in Pregnancy and Labour
Soo Downe and Fiona Dykes
Chapter 4. The Progress of Labour: Orderly Chaos?
Clare Winter and Margie Duff
Chapter 5. Time and Midwifery Practice
Trudy Stevens
Chapter 6. "Waiting on Birth": Management of Time and Place in a Birth Centre
Denis Walsh
Chapter 7. Management of Time in Aboriginal and Northern Midwifery Settings
Gisela Becker
PART III: TIME AND CHILDBIRTH EXPERIENCES
Chapter 8. Narrative Time: Stories, Childbirth and Midwifery
Ólöf Ólafsdóttir and Mavis Kirkham
Chapter 9. How Long Have I Got? Time in Labour: Themes from Women's Birth Stories
Christine McCourt
Chapter 10. "Feeding All the Time": Women's Temporal Dilemmas around Breastfeeding in Hospital
Fiona Dykes
Chapter 11. Living with "Uncertainty": Women's Experience of Breastfeeding in the Current Japanese Social Context
Naoko Hashimoto
Conclusion
Notes on Contributors
Index
