Birth in Amazonia: transforming responsibility in the care encounter

The birth of a child is a decisive event in the life of any Amazonian community. Though it represents just one moment in the ongoing process by which persons come into being, it anchors and encapsulates that process in many ways, serving as a focal point for the organization and expression of beliefs and practices around what it means to be human. Indeed, in a fundamental sense, being born organizes human existence (Stone 2019). While highly intimate and private, throughout Amazonia birth is also, in many ways, a truly collective process. It affirms and reconfigures core networks of relationships: consolidating marriages, creating ritual kin, connecting people to place, and, increasingly, drawing them into the purview of the nation state. While the majority of deliveries still take place at home, growing numbers of women today give birth in institutional settings such as hospitals or health posts, and still more participate in various forms of institutionally-based prenatal and postnatal care. Outreach programs, such as training programs for traditional birth attendants or midwives, are also becoming more prevalent. All these changing birth practices together offer a unique window onto broader social transformations and the intercultural challenges these entail.