Heeding warnings ... from the canary, the whale, and the Jnuit, Part Two.

Abstract

There is a tension between traditional and modern definitions of reproductive risk and normalcy. These experts describe that tension as it plays out among the Inuit of Northern Canada from the perspective of a community midwife who has worked with the Inuit. She presents an analytical framework which classifies and illuminates the types of logic that compete in most birth settings around the world--a framework useful for showing how some types of logic can be supervalued while others, such as cultural or intuitive logic, are devalued or simply ignored, often at great cost. Part One presented political, scientific, clinical and cultural logic, and the influence of time. We now go on to look at professionalization and training and describe legal, personal, intuitive and economic logic. The author describes how the Inuit settlement of Povungnituk (POV) attempts to re-integrate the authoritative knowledge of the community by allowing Inuit midwives at The Maternity to choose their own criteria for balancing the imperatives of each kind of logic in decision-making for birth.