ABSTRACT
In 1980, when I began fieldwork in Brassika, most births were home births. A typical birth took place in the marital quarters of a husband’s natal housecompound. Some labouring women were unattended by traditional village midwives (balian manak), by choice or circumstance; others made some effort to be attended by these traditional specialists; a few were starting to present themselves to the new government-employed midwife trained in Western-style bio-medicine, ’Gung Biyang.
