Making midwives: postmodern conditions and midwifery training in Saint Lucia

Drawing on material from fieldwork conducted on the island of Saint Lucia, I examine how Saint Lucian nurse-midwives and student midwives negotiate multiple ways of understanding and evaluating their practices and roles in light of contradictory and powerful cultural, historical, and political forces. I argue that, although Saint Lucian nurse-midwives may not qualify as "postmodern" according to the criteria proposed by Davis-Floyd and Davis (1996), they are nonetheless struggling with postmodern conditions as they negotiate between competing healing ideologies. I illustrate the significance of these negotiations through analyzing: (1) the ways nurse-midwives understand and articulate the healing ideologies at play in Saint Lucia, (2) historical and ideological aspects of the Saint Lucian nurse-midwifery training program, and (3) a classroom discussion during which student reported on "bush-midwives."