More Talk in Backward WestAnna Greenspan / text
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More Talk in Backward West
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Over the Chinese New Year I returned to Shanghai where I have been living on and off for the past two years with my
then 3 month old son. My pregnancy –like my son’s young life - was a direct experiment in globalization. The first 7 months
were spent in Shanghai - while the last three including, of course, the birth itself - were spent in Canada.
The discrepancy between attitudes and practices surrounding childbirth in China and Canada were not what I expected
and reveal much about cross cultural variation. In particular they highlight a striking difference in the relationship to
technology and modernity that exists between ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ world.
Pre natal care in Shanghai – at least at the top end of the market – is remarkably high-tech. My appointments consisted
almost entirely of a series of tests which generally involved being strapped to one machine after the next. By the time I left
China I had had at least half a dozen ultrasounds along with a host of screenings for almost every conceivable
abnormality and disease.
Once in Canada I had the option of being under the care of an OB/Gyn, or, alternatively, I could try the relatively new
system of midwifery. After careful consideration I chose the latter.
Traditionally childbirth was an entirely female affair. Occuring in the privacy of the home, it was usually overseen by a
midwife – a term which literally means ‘with woman’ – who attended the mother through labour and birth.
With the rise of modern science and technology, pregnancy and childbirth became increasingly viewed as a medical
procedure, which needed to be moved into hospitals and best managed by proffesional – usually male –physicians.
During this period midwifery was all but abolished.
The advantages of this trend are obvious. Childbirth is often dangerous and in the ‘natural’ process many women and
babies die. There is no doubt that the modern science of obstetrics has saved many lives.
Nevertheless, in the West, the influence of feminism coupled with an intensifying interest in holistic medicine has led more
and more women to reject the modern high-tech approach to birth. Pregnancy, it is increasingly felt, is not a disease and
– especially when no complications arise - should be radically demedicalized. The result has been a dramatic renewal in
the practice of midwifery .
At first I was quite anxious that I would be able to make the transition from the ultra high-tech care that I was receiving in
the so called ‘developing’ world to the seemingly much more traditional approach practiced in the ‘developed’ world.
Moreover, I was enjoying my cyborgian pregnancy and had come to rely on the machines for comfort. When one
morning in Shanghai I panicked that I could not feel the baby move I was much relieved to be immediately strapped up
to monitors.
In contrast my first midwife appointment lasted over an hour and there was not a single test. All we did was talk.
Gradually, however I grew to appreciate the stress on communication which helped give me the feeling that I was a
participant in a wondrous event rather than a patient undergoing a procedure.