ABSTRACT
In villages in north India, maternal mortality is always tragic, whether for orphaned older children and widowed men, or because of the indebtedness generated by expenditures that ultimately proved futile. Maternal mortality is an ever-present possibility: most rural women have relatives who died in childbirth and pregnant women often express acute anxieties that something might go awry during their imminent labor. Even near-deaths become general talking points, sometimes achieving mythic qualities. Obstetric crises, however, do not occur outside of history. How, then, are macrolevel processes of liberalization and privatization impacting on childbearing, on people’s access to health care, and on their understandings of their civic rights and entitlements?
