In this thesis, I examine the use of medical technology as the product of, among other things, value systems and individual and collective needs; technological use therefore is shown to be culturally influenced and subject to change according to historical and social context. / I describe and discuss the use of the Electronic Fetal Heart Rate Monitor (EFM)--a state of the art form of electronic information technology--in obstetrical care in a rural Canadian hospital and community. The central issue I examine is why this technology was obtained and repeatedly used despite local medical opinion and scientific evidence that it was ineffective as a tool to improve obstetrical outcome, and also had been shown to put pregnant women at considerable risk of unnecessary and potentially harmful interventions during birth. / I describe how EFM use appeared contradictory because medical understanding of EFM use was limited to what I define as "case centered" research; research limited to measuring the impact of the EFM on individual patient outcome. Case centered studies were not examinations either of the EFM itself, or of its associated technical regimens. Moreover, case centered studies were not used to relate the EFM to women's experiences during birth, hospital traditions, or community expectations. These latter relationships, which are ignored in case studies, form the focus of this research and explain why an EFM was used in this community.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.39820 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Bassett, Kenneth, 1952- |
| Contributors | Lock, Margaret (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Anthropology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001351476, proquestno: NN87786, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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