Cross Gwenith Siobhan
Department of History, Wilfrid Laurier University.
Can Bull Med Hist. 2014 Fall;31(2):139-159. doi: 10.3138/cbmh.31.2.139.
This paper compares midwifery in Ontario and Britain in the first half of the 20th century. British midwives improved maternal and infant health and welfare by making childbirth a cooperative, medically managed event in conjunction with physicians. British midwives thus participated in, and contributed to, developments in obstetrics. In contrast, Ontario physicians worked to exclude midwives from participation in the modernization of birth management, relying on a narrower concept of "medicalization" defined as physician dominance. This study challenges the medical profession's assumptions that the exclusion of midwifery in Ontario was necessary to the medicalization of childbirth. The British alternative, where midwives were seen as partners rather than obstacles, illustrates that medicalization in the interest of infant and maternal safety could be integrated with the work of midwives.
本文比较了20世纪上半叶安大略省和英国的助产情况。英国助产士通过与医生合作，使分娩成为一个由医学管理的协同过程，从而改善了母婴健康和福利。英国助产士因此参与并推动了产科学的发展。相比之下，安大略省的医生试图将助产士排除在分娩管理现代化进程之外，他们依赖一种更狭义的“医学化”概念，即医生主导。这项研究对医学界认为在安大略省排除助产士对于分娩医学化是必要的这一假设提出了质疑。英国的另一种模式，即将助产士视为合作伙伴而非障碍，表明为了母婴安全的医学化可以与助产士的工作相结合。
