From the Archives: While Mexico’s middle and upper classes are discovering the wonders of natural birth, traditional Indigenous midwives are actively being discouraged from providing the same services to the lower classes.
Pilar* gave birth in a private, “humanized” hospital in Mexico City that takes a holistic approach to health and combines world-class medicine with the comforts of a five-star hotel. The exterior walls of the hospital are covered with ivy, the floors are marble, and soothing tunes from a piano often echo in the multilevel foyer. Guests are served organic food.
From 2010 to 2014, I interviewed, spoke with, and observed more than 2,000 health professionals, hospital administrators, professors and instructors, medical anthropologists, fathers, and mothers all across Mexico. My informants included midwives, physicians, and more than 100 women undergoing pregnancy, birth, or the postpartum process.
These requirements might make sense if the quality of medical care was much higher in hospitals, as the government claims, or if traditional midwifery was resulting in particularly high levels of injury or death. But my research did not show either of these to be true. On the contrary, I found that women were too often receiving inferior care in hospitals, whereas I found the quality of care by midwives to be superior.
And their fear is understandable. Although it is illegal, some medical professionals at hospitals discriminate against their patients on the basis of “race”—it’s well-known that they sometimes do not treat Indigenous patients. Some cases, such as that of Irma—a Mazateca woman who was humiliated and forced to give birth in public on a hospital lawn—have been documented in major media outlets such as Proceso. And an upcoming report to the U.N.
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