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On Changing the Social relations of Australian Childbirth
A cautionary note
Ann Taylor
School of Social Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW, Australia
Abstract
This essay is a commentary on 'The social relations of childbirth: consumers and providers in international context' which was a special symposium published in the Annual Review of Health Social Sciences (ARHSS Volume 10, 2001: 43-79).
The symposium comprised diverse papers around issues of childbirth and midwifery politics in Australia at the beginning of the 21st Century. The authors demonstrate impressive and subtle scholarship in their useful analyses of childbirth as the site of complex personal and professional issues. I too have been reflecting seriously on these issues.
I don't think we can answer questions about Australian childbirth in the postmodern era without addressing the social, political and theoretical change that creates uneasiness about what can be said and what can effectively be done.
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