1. Women's stories, women's lives -- Four women's stories -- Cultural messages -- 2. The global village -- Symbolic exchanges -- Reflexive modernity -- Cultural types -- Cultural theory and myths of childbirth -- Conclusion -- 3. The nature of modernity : society, development and risk -- Social consequences of adjustment and restructuring -- Public health : public trust -- 4. Experiences of childbirth in Africa -- Characterising African rural and urban society -- The reconstruction of childbirth in Africa -- Penetrating the village : the extension of Western ideology in the practices of traditional midwives -- Modern rituals and childbirth practices : ritual confusion -- Conclusion -- 5. Experiences of childbirth in Malaysia -- Persistence and change -- The impact of modernity on Malaysian women in childbirth -- Conclusion -- 6. Experiences of childbirth in America -- American women's lives -- The egalitarian struggle for authenticity -- Fast birth : time as the dominant paradigm -- Birth territory : where women birth -- Concluding comment -- 7. Experiences of childbirth in England -- Hierarchical and egalitarian : opposing approaches to childbirth -- Risk approach to childbirth : hierarchist model -- Reconstructing relative risks -- Why did childbirth have to change? : one woman's experience -- Striving for egalitarianism -- The beginnings of change -- The changing experience of women -- Symbolic exchanges : recreating childbirth and midwifery -- Strategies of re-creation -- Conclusion --
8. Symbolic exchanges in childbirth : reflections from the case studies -- Symbolic exchanges in childbirth : the influence of science and medicine -- Furthering the numerical paradigm : 'measuring' the risk of childbirth -- The struggle for a place in the global village -- The context of the global village -- Traditional reliance on inherited and orally transmitted knowledge -- Modernity : when non-traditional health, education and social supports are available and relied upon more than the traditional -- Discussion -- Conclusion -- 9. Cultural implications for midwifery education and practice -- Global interconnectedness : local reframing -- The cultural implications of modernity for the education and training of midwifery practitioners -- Midwifery education and practice : sociocultural determinants -- Making midwives : traditional birth attendant training -- Knowledge production in development ideology -- Making midwives in the modern world : cultural implications for professional programmes -- Concluding discussion : in place of development : dialogue not training -- 10. The midwifery curriculum : a selection from culture? -- Curriculum as a selection from culture : from content and hierarchist perspectives -- The hierarchist model of education : curriculum as content : education as transmission -- Reflecting on distance education -- The case for indigenous knowledge -- Curriculum as process and education as development : education through social action and interaction -- Midwives' stories as vehicles for symbolic exchange : learning from situated knowledge -- In summary -- 11. There and back again : the ripples on the pond -- What do the stories tell us? -- Concerning cultural types and myths of nature -- Reflecting on the research.