Childbirth as Initiation: Dar a Luz

Childbirth is an important female initiation experience. Most anthropologists of birth rely on Arnold van Gennep’s three-stage understanding of initiation rituals—separation, liminality, and return. Giving birth within the technology-oriented, medical model is a very different experience than within the age-old, relational midwifery model. Although a dual midwifery–medical birth approach is the norm in most of the world, the medical model dominates birth in the U. S. Personal birth stories illustrate the felt differences in these models, from (1) purely medical births and (2) natural, medical births in the U. S. to (3) natural, midwife-attended births in Chile. Midwifery was dramatically repressed in the U. S. by the early 1900s through the use of racist and misogynist propaganda. Current research on dramatically rising rates of maternal mortality in the U. S., even as these rates are dropping in most developed countries, cites racism as a primary cause but fails to also acknowledge the loss of midwifery practices as another contributing factor. The author concludes with small steps that psychotherapists can take to help mend birth trauma.