I will be focusing on childbirth in India based on their cultural beliefs and comparing them to American beliefs. In addition, I will be using the Authoritative Knowledge article to develop my ideas. In rural India, pregnancy is viewed as a normal physiologic phenomenon that does not require intervention by health care professionals (health.qld.gov.au). Women will usually seek medical care if they are having problems in their pregnancy, otherwise, women will not seek medical care. According to the article Indian Ethnicity and Background, women feel as if they don’t have control over their pregnancy or outcomes. Looking at America, we don’t find many women who will say this. Women in America seek health care and biomedicine more than Indian women. In the video lecture Birth and Death: Medicalization and What it Leaves Out, it talks about the progression of people seeking biomedicine and by the 1980s around 98% of births was in a hospital.

In India, they believe hot foods are considered bad while cold foods are more beneficial. The cold foods are associated with preventing miscarriages, especially during the early stages of pregnancy. However, towards the end of the pregnancy, women are encouraged to eat hot foods. The hot foods are known to facilitate labor. In America, women are usually told certain foods to avoid during pregnancy such as processed meats, raw fish and eggs, caffeine, and other foods (American Pregnancy Association 2018).

Furthermore, in India twins are considered unlucky and women may take herbal medicines to promote the development of the fetus (health.qld.gov.au)

During childbirth in rural India, women are left alone because of birth-related pollution beliefs. Women typically squat or lay down as they are giving birth. There is a low institutional rate for women who deliver in rural India, roughly around 10-15% due to economic and education factors (Kesterton, Cleland, Sloggett, and Ronsmans 2010). In America during labor, women go to their obstetrician to deliver their babies and usually have a few people in the room with them as they are approaching delivery. Women deliver their babies vaginal or a c-section. Delivering vaginally is done by laying down and a c-section is done on a medical bed and women are numbed so they can’t feel the incision, there’s a sheet that goes across their bellies so they can’t see the process. Usually, one family member is in the room when the procedure takes place.

In India after delivery, the baby and the mother is separated because of beliefs of pollution due to the labor process. In different regions of India, the separation time varies. It could be for a few hours or sometimes days or weeks.

In the article Authoritative Knowledge, it talks about how there are different levels of knowledge that exist and that some of them are overpowered and have structural power over others (Jordan 1992). Based on this concept, looking at childbirth in India, we can see that in rural India they prefer not to seek medical care. They often try to do keep themselves healthy and handle the labor by themselves or with a midwife ( Weber-Steinhaus and Wadhawan 2019). However, In America, we solely rely on biomedicine since we are told this is this the best option for us because it is based on scientific evidence.

Amy J Kesterton, et al. “Institutional Delivery in Rural India: the Relative Importance of Accessibility and Economic Status.” BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, BioMed Central, 6 June 2010, bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2393-10-30.

English, H. “PDF.” Health.qld.gov.au, July 2015. “

“Foods to Avoid During Pregnancy.” American Pregnancy Association, 24 Nov. 2018, americanpregnancy.org/pregnancy-health/foods-to-avoid-during-pregnancy/.

Jordan, Bridgette. “PDF.” Institute for Research on Learning , Apr. 1992.

Weber-Steinhaus, Fiona, et al. “Giving Birth in India: ‘The Women Here Are Afraid’ – SPIEGEL ONLINE – International.” SPIEGEL ONLINE, SPIEGEL ONLINE, 2 May 2019, www.spiegel.de/international/globalsocieties/india-turning-toward-midwives-to-reduce-maternal-mortality-a-1265427.html.