The Evolution of the Social Science of Midwifery and Its Canadian Contributions

Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, Ph.D.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Ivy Bourgeault PhD (bourgea@mcmaster.ca) is an Assistant Professor in Health Studies and Sociology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She also holds a New Investigator Award with the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and is heading a five-year study of the impact of gender and geography on the rationalization of the health care division of labour in Canada and the United States. Ivy has published extensively in national and international journals not only on midwifery in Canada and the United States, but also on alternative medicine, patient consumerism, and the relations between health professions and the state. Recent coauthored books include, "Medicine, Nursing and the State" (1999) and "Heal Thyself" (2000) both with Garamond Press. Ivy has also been active within the midwifery and alternative childbirth movement for 10 years, including a position on the Board of Directors of the Toronto Birth Centre committee.