The Island of Alternatives: Power, Medical Science, and "Gentle Birthing" in Socialist Czechoslovakia
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F18%3A10365814" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/18:10365814 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://academic.oup.com/jhmas/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jhmas/jrx056/4741335" target="_blank" >https://academic.oup.com/jhmas/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jhmas/jrx056/4741335</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrx056" target="_blank" >10.1093/jhmas/jrx056</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The Island of Alternatives: Power, Medical Science, and "Gentle Birthing" in Socialist Czechoslovakia
Original language description
Beginning in the early 1980s, medical experts and birthing women increasingly voiced criticism of what had long been the technocratic, depersonalized nature of obstetric treatment in Czechoslovakia, despite the limited opportunities for them to do so publicly. A few maternity hospitals responded to the complaints by introducing radically different regimens of care. This article examines the history of one reformist project that took place in the small town of Ostrov nad Ohrı. Ostrov means "island" in Czech and, during the last decade of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, the Ostrov hospital became an island of alternative obstetric care, embracing Leboyer's method of "gentle birthing," acupuncture, fathers in delivery rooms, and assorted technological innovations that aimed to spark fundamental change in familial and social relationships, and humanize childbirth. While many medical professionals decried these reforms as nonsensical and dangerous, a number of parents-to-be flocked to Ostrov to give birth, circumventing the official rules mandating that they receive healthcare in their area of residence. This proactive consumerist behavior among expectant parents, in tandem with the call of some physicians for more attention to individual and family needs, despite the opposing official political discourse, is evidence of a grassroots movement for market-oriented principles in healthcare that reflected broader societal change during the last decade of the Communist regime.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50404 - Anthropology, ethnology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2018
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
ISSN
0022-5045
e-ISSN
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Volume of the periodical
73
Issue of the periodical within the volume
1
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
23
Pages from-to
73-95
UT code for WoS article
000431346900005
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85042350131