The Role of the Lay Midwife in Childbirth in Rural Portugal

Abstract

The following article was written shortly after thefieldwork was completed in 1979. The research was conductedjust after Portugal 's 1974 revolution, prior to which a repressive political regime allowed virtually no social science research. Since that time, some significant works have been published, but no other ethnographies focus on the role of the lay midwife. The kind of information obtained in this study required then, and would now require, heavy reliance on ethnographicfieldwork This publication may serve as a baseline for comparative research. An epilogue provides some updating of statistical information about infant mortality rates; however, little can be determined about rural-urban differences. The limited information available suggests that very little may have changed in the last 15 years for lay midwives in the rural villages studied.