An Examination of Risk Perception Amongst Obstetricians and Certified Rp Ofessional Midwives in Missouri Allison R
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Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted Spring 4-21-2013 Risking It: An Examination of Risk Perception Amongst Obstetricians and Certified rP ofessional Midwives in Missouri Allison R. Horan Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/undergrad_open Part of the Medicine and Health Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Horan, Allison R., "Risking It: An Examination of Risk Perception Amongst Obstetricians and Certified Professional Midwives in Missouri" (2013). Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted. 6. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/undergrad_open/6 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Risking It An Examination of Risk Perception Amongst Obstetricians and Certified Professional Midwives in Missouri Allison Horan Washington University in Saint Louis Department of Anthropology Senior Honors Thesis Dr. Carolyn Sargent, advisor Dr. Lewis Wall, reader Dr. Barbara Baumgartner, reader ABSTRACT The concept of risk is pervasive in contemporary discussions of childbirth –both amongst professionals and consumers. While risk is often presented as an objective entity, in reality it is an elusive concept to define, particularly within the context of maternity care. Since the nineteenth century, obstetricians and midwives have conceptualized the risks of birth differently. This thesis examines how two groups of practitioners in Missouri, obstetricians (OBs) and certified professional midwives (CPMs), perceive risk in pregnancy and childbirth. By combining archival investigation techniques with original qualitative research, I hope to demonstrate that risk in maternity care is far from a static concept. Rather, analyzing risk perception requires looking beyond individual knowledge systems to examine who it is that holds authoritative knowledge and how that knowledge drives definitions of risks and cultural understandings of what risks are acceptable during pregnancy and birth and what are not. After describing the history of maternity care in the United States, reviewing the relevant literature related to birth and risk perception, and presenting a qualitative study on the differences in risk perception between OBs and CPMs in Missouri, I move on to discuss the implications that differences and similarities in risk perception may have on the future of maternity care in Missouri. - ii - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to a number of individuals without whose knowledge, guidance, encouragement, and time, this project would not have been possible. First of all, a big thank you to my advisor, Dr. Carolyn Sargent for her enthusiasm and unwavering support during every phase of this project. Her trust in my ability to produce this thesis often far exceeded my own. That, along with the wealth of knowledge (and books) that she so generously shared with me, was the driving force behind much of this project. Additionally, I’d like to thank Dr. Barbara Baumgartner, for her interest in my research, words of reassurance, and mastery of English grammar and syntax. Thank you Dr. Lewis Wall for putting me in touch with the obstetric community in Missouri, constantly pushing me to improve my writing, and for being an incredible inspiration. I’d like to thank Adrienne Strong, for her advice early on and for introducing me to the midwifery community in St. Louis. I would also like to thank Friends of Missouri Midwives, the Missouri Midwives Association, and the obstetricians I met with for so generously letting me into their offices, homes, and lives, and for sharing their personal and professional experiences with me. Finally, I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to my professors, family, friends, and especially EJF, for constantly supporting me and putting up with my delirium throughout the final weeks of the writing and revision process. - iii - TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Inspiration 2 Methodologies 3 Terminology: Midwifery Qualifications 5 CHAPTER 2: THE EVOLUTION OF MATERNITY CARE IN AMERICA 10 Early Models of Childbirth In America: Colonial Birth (1700s) 10 Formalizing the Distinction: Physicians and Midwives (1800s) 14 The Midwife Problem and a Solution: The Nurse-Midwife 18 From Home to Hospital: The Medicalization of Childbirth 21 Birthing the Baby Boom 28 The Rebirth of Natural Birth 32 An Illusion of Control: Turn of The Century Maternity Care 37 The Current State of Maternity Care in America 38 Why Missouri? 39 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL PERSPECTICE ON BIRTH AND RISK 43 Childbirth and Medical Anthropology 44 Authoritative Knowledge 45 Birth as a Rite of Passage 48 Biopower 49 Social Theories of Risk Perception 50 Conceptualizing Safety: Medicine-as-Progress 54 An Alternative Approach: The Midwives Model of Care 56 CHAPTER 4: RISK PERCEPTION IN MATERNITY CARE 59 What is Risk? 60 Constructing Risk 61 Reinforcing Risk 66 Re-Constructing Risk: An Alternative View 69 Minimizing Risk, Maximizing Safety? 71 Knowledge is Power (and Power is Choice) 76 CHAPTER 5: A QUALITATIVE STUDY ON RISK PERCEPTION 78 Context 78 Methods 82 Participants 85 Findings 87 Part A: Sources of Knowledge 87 Part B: Perceived Risks 98 Part C: Additional Findings 120 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS 129 Discussion 129 Implications 137 Areas for Further Research 139 APPENDIXES 141 REFERENCES CITED 145 - iv - CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” -H.L. Mencken Scope of This Study In this investigation I will explore the ways in which maternity care has been constructed over the course of the United States’ history to try and minimize the perceived risks in childbirth. The concept of risk is particularly pervasive in discourses surrounding birth practices in the United States. While risk is often presented as an objective entity, it is actually quite an elusive concept to define, particularly within the context of maternity care. Who determines what a risk is? How do they determine it? Who has the cultural authority to deem a risk acceptable or impermissible? How is an individual meant to act in response to risk? Throughout the United States’ history, the answers that physicians and midwives have proposed to these questions have often conflicted. This thesis will examine how two distinct groups of maternity care practitioners in Missouri, obstetricians (OBs) and certified professional midwives (CPMs) perceive risk in childbirth. The purpose of my research is to: (1) examine how CPMs and OBs conceptualize risk in birth; (2) develop a better understanding of how risk perception influences practitioners’ opinions of the safest way to manage labor; (3) explore practitioners’ thoughts on what level of risk is acceptable in birth; (4) determine who they think is responsible for determining the acceptability of risk; and (5) and investigate whether the risks of medical malpractice lawsuits influence the way CPMs and OBs practice. What I hope to demonstrate throughout this paper is that risk in maternity care is not a static concept. Rather, it fluctuates within and between groups of providers and consumers, creating a complex and - 1 intertwined web of risk definitions and aversion strategies that dictate standards of maternity care in the United States. There are a number of reasons why studying risk perception in childbirth is an important area of academic inquiry. Anthropological studies on maternity care and risk perception intersect at a very interesting point in the literature: risk perception tends to extend into the disciplines of sociology, public health, and governance while the literature on childbirth tends to extend in the direction of ethnographies, histories, politics, and women’s studies. Thus, because risk perception in childbirth exists at a nexus of extraordinary interdisciplinary influence, it is a particularly informative area of research for examining the complex interactions of factors that influence maternity care. I have tried to utilize the perspectives that each of these subjects bring to the study of risk perception and childbirth in order to create as rounded a picture as possible of the state of contemporary maternity care in the United States and specifically, in Missouri. Inspiration The focus of this study grew out of the mounting interest I’ve had in childbirth, maternity care, and women’s health over the course of my university education. Three years ago I enrolled in two anthropology courses: one taught by Dr. Carolyn Sargent called “Global Gender Issues,” and the other taught by Dr. Lewis Wall called “An Anthropology of Human Birth.” The courses introduced me to the anthropology of birth, a subject area that I had known relatively little about, but an area which has directed my course of study ever since. While my original interests were focused on women’s maternal health in developing countries, after I spent a year abroad in the United Kingdom and observed the incredibly different system of maternity care that exists there, I became interested in - 2 exploring the medicalization of childbirth in America’s system of maternity care. As I began my research, it quickly became clear just how broad