Breaking the silence : stories of parteras empíricas in Nicaragua
Date
2010-04-18
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This master’s thesis presents the stories of Doña Eugdocia and Doña Carmen: two parteras empíricas living and working in the area of Estelí, Nicaragua. The stories were constructed from interviews with the parteras empíricas and are influenced by testimonial life history research methods. The stories, complemented by interviews with Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) trainers, locally available training manuals, and interviews with other parteras empíricas function as a counter-narrative to global (TBA) discourse revealing the important but little understood contributions these women make to their respective communities and health care systems. The stories demonstrate important parallels between the parteras empíricas’ narrowing role in Nicaragua and global TBA discourse regarding their practices. The stories also dispel the notion of the “traditional” as signifying incapable of change. Instead, considering the parteras empíricas story within a postcolonial framework using Jordan’s (an anthropologist) conceptualization of “authoritative knowledge” demonstrates that the parteras empíricas positioning of biomedicine as authoritative is a survival mechanism and not a devaluation of their own epistemological orientations.
Description
Keywords
traditional birth attendant, Nicaragua
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Community Health and Epidemiology
Program
Community Health and Epidemiology