Cognition, Risk, and Responsibility in Obstetrics: Anthropological Analyses and Critiques of Obstetricians’ Practices

Volume 2 in this landmark 3-volume series The Anthropology of Obstetrics and Obstetricians: The Practice, Maintenance, and Reproduction of a Biomedical Profession looks at cognition, risk, and responsibility in obstetrics. This volume contains social science analyses of Swiss, Chilean, Mexican, US, Greek, and Irish obstetrics and obstetricians, particularly around their reasons for the overuse of cesareans; a chapter on "4 Stages of Cognition" and a condition called "Substage," which describes how these concepts apply to obstetricians; and a chapter on why obstetricians fear home birth. This book is a must-read for students, social scientists, and all maternity care practitioners who seek to understand obstetricians' differing ideologies and motives for practicing as they do. An excerpt from Vania Smith-Oka and Lydia Dixon's chapter: For systemic changes to occur, we must understand doctors’ decision-making rationales and take their fear-based perspectives about risk and responsibility into account, while also paying attention to the concerns raised by scholars and activists.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: An Overview of This Volume and of Significant Concepts Used Robbie Davis-Floyd and Ashish Premkumar Chapter 1. Open and Closed Knowledge Systems, the 4 Stages of Cognition, and the Obstetric Management of Birth Robbie Davis-Floyd Chapter 2. From “Mastership” to Active Management of Labor: The Culture of Irish Obstetrics and Obstetricians Margaret Dunlea, Martina Hynan, Jo Murphy-Lawless, Magdalena Ohaja, Malgorzata Stach and Jeannine Webster Chapter 3. Becoming an Obstetrician in Greece: Medical Training, Informal Scripts, and the Routinization of Cesarean Birth Eugenia Georges Chapter 4. Physiologic Birth Entails Economic Damage: Financial Incentives for the Performance of Cesareans in Chile Michelle Sadler and Gonzalo Leiva Chapter 5. The Introduction of “Natural Cesareans” in Swiss Hospitals: A Conversation with One of Its Pioneers Caroline Chautems, Irene Maffi, and Alexandre Farin Chapter 6. Scoring Women, Calculating Risk: The MFMU VBAC Calculator Nicholas Rubashkin Chapter 7. On Risk and Responsibility: Contextualizing Practice among Mexican Obstetricians Vania Smith-Oka and Lydia Z. Dixon Chapter 8. Crossing Bodily, Social, and Intimate Boundaries: How Class, Ethnic, and Gender Differences Are Reproduced in Medical Training in Mexico Vania Smith-Oka and Megan K. Marshalla Chapter 9. The Limitations of Understanding Structural Inequality: Obstetricians’ Accounts of Caring for Substance-Using Patients in the US Katharine McCabe Chapter 10. Contraceptive Provision by Obstetricians/Gynecologists in the US: Biases, Misperceptions, and Barriers to an Essential Reproductive Health Service Melissa Goldin Evans Chapter 11. Cognition, Risk, and Responsibility: Home Birth and Why Obstetricians Fear It Amali U. Lokugamage and Claire Feeley Conclusions: Concepts, Conceptual Frameworks, and Lessons Learned Robbie Davis-Floyd and Ashish Premkumar Index