Midwives Practice CAM: Feminism in the Delivery Room

Abstract

This article focuses on midwives who practice complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Israel. After qualifying as nurses in mainstream biomedical institutions, these midwives have, at some point in their careers, opted to study a variety of CAM skills and practice them in hospital delivery rooms in Israel. The authors explore the relationship of selected elements of feminist ideology to the epistemology of CAM midwives. Seven context-specific themes are viewed as central to their epistemological stance: rejection of the medicalization of birth; a strong belief in the “naturalness” of childbirth; rejection of the overuse of technology; empowerment of women; nostalgia and reverence for the past; centrality of intuition, feeling, and emotion; and active advocacy. In-depth, semistructured interviews were carried out during 2004 to 2005 with 13 midwives. These narratives provided empirical material for a qualitative analysis. Evidence is shown to demonstrate the unique feminist quality of the core beliefs of the CAM midwives.