Ethnicity and generation of audiences in the use of midwifery in two cities in southern Mexico.

Abstract

In southern Mexico, midwifery has an important role in the maternal health care of women and families from different social strata. The present research was carried out in the cities of Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Tumben Kuxtal where I examined the construction of publics through midwifery. The analysis is based on two types of midwifery practices: autonomous midwives that offer their services in a tourist city and attract a multicultural, middle class and high (sensu Bourdieu); traditional midwives of Felipe Carrillo Puerto and help an indigenous public of more popular strata. The choice of midwifery by women from upper-middle class families is related to the social construction of taste. This public takes into account socially constructed characteristics such as the return to "the natural" for health care, respect for the decision of women on their bodies and representations of the ancestrality and indigenity of "the Mayan."