A La Frontera: Accessing Midwives at the U.S.-Mexico Border (2011)

Undergraduate: Kimmie Garner

Faculty Advisor: Karen Booth
Department: Women's and Gender Studies

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In the United States (U.S.), 99% of births take place in the hospital and only 8% of births are attended by midwives. With Cesarean and epidural rates rising in hospitals and a segment of literature that posits birth as a woman's reproductive choice and right, there has been a resurgence of interest in and use of alternative birthing options, such as birth centers, home births, and water births.

Little is known about how the natural birth movement is affecting low-income women of color, particularly Mexican immigrants, and the specific reasons why these women seek out natural options, however. The distinction between Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM) and Certified Professional Midwives (CPM) and women's motivations for becoming one of these as opposed to the other is also a little explored or understood topic.

My research explores these issues in the context of a high-volume birth center and midwifery school in El Paso, Texas and illuminates midwives', students', and clients' personal, economic, and familial reasons for learning within and accessing the services of this birth center and school on the U.S.-Mexico border. It demonstrates the complex gender, race, class, and national relationships among staff, students, and clients and provides important information about healthcare access and delivery in a highly contested geographical and political space.