Global Midwifery and the Technologies of Emotion

Global Midwifery and the
Technologies of Emotion
Maria Fannin
1
School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
Email: mfannin@bristol.ac.uk

Abstract
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  Internetbased  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.