This article focuses on midwives who practice complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Israel. After qualifying as nurses in mainstream biomedical institutions, these midwives have, at some point in their careers, opted to study a variety of CAM skills and practice them in hospital delivery rooms in Israel. The authors explore the relationship of selected elements of feminist ideology to the epistemology of CAM midwives. Seven context-specific themes are viewed as central to their epistemological stance: rejection of the medicalization of birth; a strong belief in the “naturalness” of childbirth; rejection of the overuse of technology; empowerment of women; nostalgia and reverence for the past; centrality of intuition, feeling, and emotion; and active advocacy. In-depth, semistructured interviews were carried out during 2004 to 2005 with 13 midwives. These narratives provided empirical material for a qualitative analysis. Evidence is shown to demonstrate the unique feminist quality of the core beliefs of the CAM midwives.
Bernhard, L.A. (2003). Women's health nurse practitioners, feminism and women's studies. Women's Studies Quarterly, 31, 76-89.
2.
Browner, C.H., & Press, N. (1996). The production of authoritative knowledge in American prenatal care. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 10, 141-156.
3.
Coburn, D., & Willis, E. (2000). The medical profession: Knowledge, power and autonomy . In G. R. Albrecht, R. Fitzpatrick, & S. Scrimshaw (Eds.), Handbook of social studies in heath and medicine (pp. 377-393). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
4.
Cohain, J.S. (2004). Midwifery in Israel. MidwiferyToday, 71, 28-29.
5.
Davis-Floyd, R. (1992). Birth as an American right of passage. Berkeley: SAGE Publications.
6.
Davis-Floyd, R., & Davis, E. (1996). Intuition as authoritative knowledge in midwifery and homebirth. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 10, 237-269.
7.
Duden, B. (1993). Disembodying women: Perspectives on pregnancy and the unborn. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8.
Evenson, D. (1982). Midwives: Survival of an ancient profession. Women's Rights Law Reporter, 7, 313-330.
9.
Gieryn, T.F. (1983). Boundary-work and the demarcation of science from non-science: Strains and interests in professional ideologies of scientists . American Sociological Review, 48, 781-795.
10.
Gieryn, T.F. (1999). Cultural boundaries of science: Credibility on the line. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
11.
Glaser, B.G., & Strauss, A.L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for grounded research. New York: Aldine .
12.
Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs, and women. New York: Routledge.
13.
Hays, B.M. (1996). Authority and authoritative knowledge in American birth. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 10, 291-294.
14.
Israel Midwives Association. (2005). Midwives in Israel. Tel Aviv: Author .
15.
Israel Ministry of Health. (2004). Nursing in Israel. Jerusalem: Author .
16.
Jamous, H., & Pelouille, B. (1970). Changes in the French university-hospital system in professions and professionalization. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
17.
Kandel, E., Schwartz, J., & Jessel, T. (2000). Principles of neural science (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
18.
Klassen, P.E. (2001a). Sacred maternities and postbiomedical bodies: Religion and nature in contemporary home birth. Signs, 26, 775-809.
19.
Klassen, P.E. (2001b). Blessed events: Religion and homebirth in North America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
20.
Lewin, E. (1977). Feminist ideology and the meaning of work: The case of nursing. Catalyst, 10-11, 78-103.
21.
Lifshitz-Milwidsky, L. (2007). Dual nurses: Redefining boundaries between conventional and alternative medicine. Unpublished master's thesis, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
22.
Miller, S.I., & Fredericks, M. (1999). How does grounded theory explain?Quantitative Health Research, 9, 538-581.
23.
Mizrachi, N., & Shuval, J.T. (2004). Between formal and enacted boundaries: Changing the contours of boundaries. Social Science & Medicine , 60, 1649-1660.
24.
Mizrachi, N., Shuval, J.T., & Gross, S.E. (2004). Boundary at work: Alternative medicine in biomedical settings. Sociology of Health and Illness, 27, 20-43.
25.
Reches, R. (1978). Midwifery in Israel: On the services provided to women in Israel (Hebrew). Paper presented at the International Congress of Midwifery, Israel.
26.
Rushing, B. (1993). Ideology in the reemergence of North American midwifery. Work and Occupations, 20, 46-67.
27.
Scott, A. (1998). Homeopathy as a feminist form of medicine. Sociology of Health & Illness, 20, 191-214.
28.
Shildrick, M. (1997). Leaky bodies and boundaries: Feminism, postmodernism and (bio)ethics. New York: Routledge .
29.
Shuval, J.T. (1992). Social dimensions of health: The Israeli experience . Westport, CT: Praeger.
30.
Shuval, J.T. (1999). The bear's hug: Patterns of pragmatic collaboration and coexistence of complementary medicine and bio-medicine in Israel. In I. S. Hellberg, M. Saks, & C. Benoit (Eds.), Professional identities in transition. Goteborg, Sweden: Almquist & Wiksell.
31.
Shuval, J.T. (2001). Collaborative relationships of alternative practitioners and physicians in Israel: An exploratory study. Complementary Health Practice Review, 7, 111-125.
32.
Shuval, J.T. (2006). Nurses in alternative health care: Integrating medical paradigms. Social Science & Medicine, 63, 1784-1795.
33.
Shuval, J.T., & Mizrachi, N. (2004). Changing boundaries: Modes of coexistence of alternative and bio-medicine. Qualitative Health Research, 14, 675-690.
34.
Shuval, J.T., Mizrachi, N., & Smetannikov, E. (2002). Entering the well-guarded fortress: Alternative practitioners in hospital settings. Social Science & Medicine, 55, 1745-1755.
35.
Slome, J. (2004). Midwifery in Israel. MidwiferyToday, 71, 28-29.
36.
Smetannikov, E. (2007). Boundary-spanning physicians: The liaison of bio-medicine and alternative medicine. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
37.
Springer, S.P., & Deutsch, G. (1993). Left brain, right brain. New York: W. H. Freeman.
38.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1999). Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In A. Bryan, & R. Burgees (Eds.), Qualitative research (pp. 72-94). London : SAGE Publications.
39.
Tel-Oren, A. (2002). Home births in Israel. Tel Aviv: Israel Midwives Association.
40.
Tovey, P., & Adams, J. (2003). Nostalgic and nostophobic referencing and the authentication of nurses' use of complementary therapies. Social Science & Medicine, 56, 1469-1480.
41.
Weitz, R., & Sullivan, D.A. (1986). The politics of childbirth: The re-emergence of midwifery in Arizona. Social Problems , 33, 162-175.
42.
Young, I. (1990). Throwing like a girl and other essays in feminist philosophy and social theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
