Midwives On Horseack ——A Study Of The Oral History Of Xilin Gol Midwives

Midwives,as the critical role in childbirth,were particularly active in the previous farming and pastoral areas.BLJ is a midwife in East Ujimqin Banner,Xilin Gol League.She has delivered babies for 50 years from 1958 to 2008,and has made due contributions to midwifery in pastoral areas.She is now very old,and without her oral history,her years of birth experience would have been lost.Therefore,this paper,using the method of oral history research,reproduces her midwifery experience through her memory,explores the contribution of midwifery to the cause of midwifery,so as to see the cultural status and changes of midwifery in pastoral areas.This paper consists of an introduction,text,conclusion,references and appendix.The first chapter is the introduction,which explains the reason and significance of the topic,the previous research results,and explains the research methods and objectives;The second chapter narrates BLJ’s experience of delivering babies.She took to the path of midwifery because of two accidental events.During her 50 years of midwifery career,she combined local knowledge and experience to serve the birth process of women in pastoral areas with the “toolless”midwifery method based on massage.Chapter three analyzes her family life from the perspective of gender.The family sphere and the public sphere seem to be independent fields,but they are inextricably linked.BLJ never leaves the family sphere during her busy midwifery career,and manages the family life as a wife and mother like other women.Chapter four,through the analysis of BLJ elderly midwifery experience,explains the emotional relationship and labor nature of midwifery work.BLJ’s work as a midwife does not have regular “commuting”hours or a regular salary,but is unpaid labor start by love.The fifth chapter analyzes the evaluation of Gacha government and local herders on BLJ.Her exquisite massage techniques and continuous care for puerpera during childbirth have been highly praised by local people.Although she did not get much wealth or reward during the long process delivering babies,she gained a lot of relatives beyond blood;Chapter six discusses the reasons why midwives have stepped down from the stage of history.Under the influence of top-down national policies,the practice of childbirth has been transferred from the family domain to the public domain,and the midwife has stepped down from the historical stage.However,the birth methods with low medical invasion,such as massage to reduce pain and perineum protection,can provide an important thinking window for the contemporary over-medicalized birth phenomenon;In the conclusion part,Lefebvre’s "space theory" is used to analyze the life course of BLJ old people from midwifery to the historical stage,so as to see the cultural status and changes of midwifery in pastoral areas.The midwives represented by BLJ elders gave full play to their subjective initiative in the era of lack of materials and inconvenient transportation,and shaped their own life value while devoting their lives to midwifery in pastoral areas on horseback.Although midwives are a group that has gone out of history,their contribution to the birth of new life should not be forgotten.