Maternity, Medicine, and Power

Maternity, Medicine, and Power: Reproductive Decisions in Urban Benin explores the complex interplay of cultural beliefs, socio-economic factors, and medical systems influencing the reproductive choices of urban Bariba women in Parakou, Benin. The book examines how traditional Bariba values—such as honor, stoicism, and spiritual vigilance—intersect with the pressures and opportunities of urban life, particularly in the domain of obstetrical care. Urban Bariba women, caught between traditional practices and modern healthcare options, navigate choices shaped by indigenous beliefs about witchcraft, societal status aspirations, and perceptions of medical competence. The research underscores how structural factors, including access to healthcare and government policies promoting hospital births, interact with cultural priorities to inform women's decisions about childbirth and maternal care.

Through a combination of ethnographic research, participant observation, and interviews with diverse groups, the study delves into how urbanization and modernization reshape Bariba reproductive practices and beliefs. It highlights the persistence of traditional ideologies, such as the identification of witch babies and solitary childbirth, even as women increasingly seek medical interventions in urban clinics. The findings reveal the nuanced "juggling" of individual agendas, balancing indigenous cosmologies with the pragmatic demands of urban life, while also addressing broader issues of gender, class, and power in the sociopolitical landscape of Benin. Ultimately, the book provides a critical lens on the transformation of health practices in a dynamic cultural and structural context.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.