Final Paper: Birth in a Popular Culture

Dona Dorca is well-known amongst the villagers of El Gaso in the Amazon of Brazil for “catching babies” as she calls it. She has not only “caught” the babies of the villagers, but the babies of their children as well. Traveling to the hospital is a long, dangerous, and exhausting trip down the river, and families rarely have any money to cover the transportation. The women in the villages and along the rivers of the Amazon basin trust a midwife they have known for years over a doctor they have never even met. She may even have seen some of them being born. The midwife is the first person a newborn sees after emerging from the mother’s womb. She is always lovingly referred to as “old mother” by any of the children she delivered. Baby Catchers of the Amazon is a documentary following three of these midwives and the villagers in their care. Dona Dorca did not receive any special schooling or training to become a midwife. When she was fifteen, her mother was in labor with another baby. Dona Dorca’s father left her alone with her mother while he went to call the midwife. Her mother was in pain and asked for her help. The baby was already being born. Dona Dorca had already had a baby of her own, but she had never seen another woman give birth. She was embarrassed because it was her mother, but she had no choice but to help. Later she had helped women like this several times. She “caught” their babies before the midwife arrived. The people living in the remote villages along the rivers of the Amazon basin of Brazil are known as Ribereños. The midwives who deliver babies in this area also take care of the Ribereños with their cures and advice (Pommez, 2012). Dona Zunilda travels by water to reach the families in this forest. She is the midwife of the rivers. During a prenatal visit, Zunilda gives a massage to soothe a stiff or