Rethinking the birthing body: Cartesian dualism and perinatal nursing

AIM OF THE PAPER: This paper highlights the pervasive influence of a Cartesian metaphysics on the medical paradigm and its profound impact on the practice of perinatal nursing in North America. BACKGROUND: Modern perinatal health care practices are founded on a Cartesian metaphysics that reduce birthing women to the status of object. Such practices deny the holistic aims of perinatal nursing. METHODS: A philosophical inquiry informs the tenets of this metaphysical discussion regarding the foundations of perinatal nursing practices. FINDINGS: Although perinatal health care is founded on a Cartesian metaphysics, an alternative paradigm of embodied practice is suggested as a way of viewing birthing women as embodied subjects. CONCLUSION: If the foundations of health care, which have been built on a Cartesian metaphysics, are not re-examined, perinatal nurses will be providing care that further reduce women to the status of object.