The "Granny" Midwife: Changing Roles and Functions of a Folk Practitioner

Midwifery, considerably reduced in scope, is still practiced among Negroes in a Southeastern rural region. Seen as a social institution in partial disintegration, marginal to modern medical practices, and subject to powerful official opposition, it permits the study of institutional adaptation to stress. The old midwife practiced with the sponsorship and personal support of the white physician. She was "called" to her occupation and trained through a familial apprenticeship. The new midwife is trained and officially appointed by a Health Center. The old midwife has continued to retain by far the largest share of practice by reliance upon her power and prestige in the Negro community, but urban influences are affecting her clientele, and she is faced with competitors rather than successors.