ABSTRACT
YOU ASK OBSERVERS OF NON-MEDICATED what strikes them most about women’s behaviours they will often comment on the labouring woman’s apparent inherent restlessness. Gould (1999), in her important paper on a concept analysis of labour, stresses movement as fundamental, along with the truism of the courage and determination exhibited by women. None of these characteristics are mentioned by classic textbook definitions of labour, in a potent sign of the reductionism of the biomedical model.
