Mainstreaming Alternative Medicine: Doing Midwifery at the Intersection

Abstract

Joining the discussion regarding the future of alternative and traditional medical practices and beliefs, the author explores how operating within the dominant sociopolitical system challenges alternative health care providers' definitions of themselves, their practices, and their systems of beliefs. Specifically, this case study articulates the experiences of one group of birth care providers (both certified nurse and nonlicensed, apprentice-trained midwives) as a web of paradox that simultaneously marginalizes parts of their occupational identity while allowing them to operate within the dominant sociopolitical system.