Birth Matters

Abstract

This chapter outlines the medical and midwifery models of childbirth. In most developed nations, the medical model of childbirth dominates maternity care and obstetricians have authoritative knowledge. This chapter defines the medicalization schema as a deep, largely unconscious conceptual framework that organizes beliefs about pregnancy and birth. The medicalization schema contains three key components: the pathologization of normal pregnancy and childbirth, scienciness, and technology fetishism. This chapter defines the concepts of scienciness and technology fetishism with respect to common obstetric practices and technologies that lack the support of scientific evidence. Lackluster public health results and critiques from women’s health movements challenge the validity of medicalization.