Childbirth customs as women's culture: A jurisprudential argument for protection under international and American legal norms.

摘要

This work examines childbirth policy in the United States and the developing world. It is my contention that women should have a choice of caregiver during childbirth, a choice that could be protected by existing legal norms, the right to privacy in the United States and the right to culture under international law. Using the United States as an example, the project examines the male-based cultural values of the “Western,” scientific approach to medicine and implications of this approach for childbirth. In contrast, midwifery, and its foundation within a female cultural tradition, is discussed. The reemergence of midwifery in the United States offers women the opportunity to regain control of the birthing process. Despite the growth of the practice of midwifery, however, there are barriers that exist for women to gain access to midwives. By extending the American constitutional right to privacy in a positive fashion, women could be guaranteed the choice of caregiver during birth that would include access to midwifery services.; Childbirth practices are also explored in several developing countries. Birth is still controlled by women in many places, but the introduction of Westernized medicine is slowly replacing female control with a more male-dominated system. The importance of childbirth practices for women's experience is interpreted as a form of culture. In the international arena, I provide an interpretation of reproductive freedom as it relates to birth within the analytic framework of international human rights norms. The right to culture can be construed in such a way as to guarantee the possibility of female-controlled approaches to childbirth insofar as these are understood as cultural traditions. While acknowledging the value of biomedical approaches to medicine inasmuch as they improve women's health (e.g., decreasing maternal mortality), this case study demonstrates the value of maintaining or restoring women's control of the process. Hence, the argument for integrating biomedicine and traditional, female-based practices into childbirth processes offers the most possibilities to women and can be justified by invoking existing constitutional and international principles.