Piggy in the Middle: The Midwife’s Role in Achieving Woman-Controlled Childbirth

Abstract

In seeking changes to the current system of childbirth management, feminist critics have focused on midwives as the professional group who can ensure woman-controlled childbirth. Radical midwives now argue that as caretakers of childbirth, midwives must be prepared to contest established obstetric practices even when this leads to a conflictual situation for them. This paper examines when conflictual situations arise and what impact these have on the goal of radical midwifery of creating childbirth practices which can validly claim to be woman-controlled.