Invoking Vali: Painful Technologies of Modern Birth in South India

Abstract

As reproduction becomes increasingly biomedicalized throughout the globe, reproductive technologies are used in unique ways and imbued with different meanings. This article explores why lower–class women in south India in the 1990s were demanding to have childbirth labors induced with oxytocin drugs while rejecting anesthesia. Cultural constructions women's reproductive power are evoked and reworked in discourses of modernity that explain this preference. Discourses on relationships among gender, pain, and modernity relate to political—economic constraints on hospitals to perpetuate this practice, [modernity; reproductive technologies; gender; India]

Childbirth practices in rural Rajasthan, India: implications for neonatal health and survival

“…12 Data from elsewhere in India too confirm the widespread misuse of oxytocin for labor acceleration during home births. [13][14][15] The application of fundal pressure is expected to increase the risk of fetal distress (hence asphyxia) and birth trauma, including intracranial hemorrhage. 16 The above-mentioned survey in Rajasthan 12 found that fundal pressure was used in 94% of home and 63% of facility deliveries.…”

Unmonitored Intrapartum Oxytocin Use in Home Deliveries: Evidence from Uttar Pradesh, India

“…18 Reports from elsewhere in rural Karnataka also indicate widespread intrapartum use of oxytocin, 19 whilst in Chennai, intrapartum oxytocin use was normalised as a form of ''crowd control'' in busy hospitals and ''almost routine'' for the local multi-purpose health worker during home deliveries. 20,21 A study in a poor area of Delhi reported oxytocin use in 68.9% of home deliveries, administered by private doctors in 86.8% of cases. 22 These studies are relatively small-scale and did not include appropriate control populations.…”

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Related to Uterotonic Drugs during Childbirth in Karnataka, India: A Qualitative Research Study

“…Intramuscular (IM) oxytocin injection during the first and second stages of labor can be dangerous because dosing cannot be adjusted in response to the strength of uterine contractions, increasing risks of uterine rupture and harm to the fetus [13]. However, IM oxytocin is reportedly common to induce and augment labor in some settings, including at home births and in health facilities; it has been claimed that IM administration is practiced for rapid delivery at the request of pregnant women or their families [11], [18], [19].…”