Modern Reproduction:New Midwifery And The Transformation Of Traditional Midwives' In 1950s Shanxi

The New Midwifery of the 1950s was a central CCP policy of maternal and child health work,informed by past experiences.By transforming traditional midwives,training new childbirth assistants,and building rural maternity hospitals,the state established an entirely new infrastructure of maternity and child hygiene from the top down.Using local archives and secondary sources,and taking an interdisciplinary perspective from medical history,sociology and anthropology,this thesis reconstructs the history of new midwifery in 1950s Shanxi Province.By focusing on new midwifery,reproductive reform became an effective way for the state to be increasingly involved in rural society.Traditional midwives were requested to change their old "unhygienic" habits and pay more attention to disinfection and dystocia,like the new childbirth assistants were trained to do.Through technical improvements and ideological education,the state aimed to combat maternal and infant mortality and to improve rural health with "modern and scientific" reproduction,which was seen as a necessity in the pursuit of reproductive modernity.At the same time,through the modernization of reproduction,the state chose "scientific and sanitary" new midwifery as the foundation of a new administrative system that transformed traditionally autonomous reproduction and penetrated into rural society to break the separation between the state and individuals.However,this process was not straightforward,and was in many ways shaped by the interactions and conflicts between "new" and "old".No matter whether it is recognizing the pain of childbirth,or the childbirth assistants' conflicts between "new" and "old",such modernizing processes were closely intertwined with culture and customs,which together shaped the concepts and practices of what it means to be human.