Global Midwifery and the Technologies of Emotion

This paper examines the emergence of activist organizations promoting midwifery as a "global" practice. New organizations like the International Alliance of Midwives link individual midwives and midwifery advocates through Internet-based chat rooms, websites, and discussion lists. These organizations draw productively on representations of midwives as world citizens to establish new forms of connection, fostered in part by technological developments in communication that posit direct links between local activists through a global network. Yet what kinds of visions are forged through invocations of midwifery's globality? Differences in the political, cultural, and economic status of midwifery worldwide complicate the efforts of midwives to advocate for a global political midwifery movement. By examining the "global" as a site of emotional investment, I demonstrate how midwives' attempts to map "tradition" and "technique" reveal attachments to particular ways of imagining the world.