ABSTRACT
In the Western world, complementary therapies are seen as complementary to conventional medicine. Ernst and Watson’s (2012, 772) research into midwives’ use of complementary and alternative treatments (CATs) cites the Cochrane Collaboration’s theoretical definition (Wieland et al. 2011, 8) of CAM as:
a broad domain of healing resources that encompass all health systems, modalities, and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically dominant health systems of a particular society or culture in a given historical period.
