Even childbirth is affected by globalization--and in India, as elsewhere, the trend is away from home births,
assisted by midwives, toward hospital births with increasing reliance on new technologies. And yet, as this work
of critical feminist ethnography clearly demonstrates, the global spread of biomedical models of childbirth has
not brought forth one monolithic form of "modern birth." Focusing on the birth experiences of lower-class
women in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Birth on the Threshold reveals the complex and unique ways in which
modernity emerges in local contexts.
Through vivid description and animated dialogue, this book conveys the birth stories of the women of Tamil Nadu
in their own voices, emphasizing their critiques of and aspirations for modern births today. In light of these
stories, author Cecilia Van Hollen explores larger questions about how the structures of colonialism and postcolonial
international and national development have helped to shape the form and meaning of birth for Indian women today.
Ultimately, her book poses the question: How is gender--especially maternity--reconfigured as birth is transformed?