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The above narration corresponds to the spoken portrait of Los mexicanos pintados por sí mismos, a literary work that reflects the customs and aspects of daily life in Mexican society in the mid-19th century, in which the social importance of midwives and their role in the assistance and care of pregnant and puerperal women can be observed, This shows how, despite the process of professionalization and institutionalization of health activities and their regulation as an exclusive task of medical specialists, initiated at the end of the eighteenth century, it was still the women of the "village" who were in charge of healing the sick, as mothers, grandmothers, midwives, weavers, bonesetters, and/or wet nurses; based on a social and gender role, which responded perfectly to their supposed "natural" condition of producers and reproducers of life.
About the author
Betzabé Arreola Martínez é doutorada em História pela Universidade Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) e especialista em história da medicina e da saúde pública. Especialista em Direitos Humanos. Atualmente é professora no Centro de Posgrado del Estado de México (CPEM) e na Universidad Ejecutiva del Estado de México (UEEM).
