Changes in Childbirth Knowledge

Previous to 1940 fewer than to percent of women living in the western Navajo reservation gave birth in a hospital, but by 1970 the percentage of hospital births was nearly 1oo percent (Kunitz 1976, 16). Leighton and Kluckholn stated in 1948, Today an increasing number of Navajo women go to the Indian Service hospitals for delivery, but they still form a trifling portion of the total (Leighton and Kluckholn 1948, 15). The greatest shift toward hospital birth occurred in the late 195os. The implications of this shift are worth examining to increase understanding of Indigenous knowledge about childbirth and how it contributes to positive birth outcomes.