Abstract
Since the late 1900s, maternal health has increasingly been medicalised as a result of growing global concerns about poor maternal outcomes. An example of this medicalisation process is the use of oxytocin for labour augmentation. This practice of administering oxytocin to shorten the duration of labour is increasingly questioned. Feminist scholars have often questioned the routine use of oxytocin, depicting it as unnecessary and may constitute inappropriate use of the drug that undermines women’s autonomy and contributes to negative birth experiences. However, these feminist arguments overlook individual agency and the complex ways in which actors encounter and interact with oxytocin as a part of medicalised maternal care. Using the intersubjectivity framework, the study examines how oxytocin use is negotiated by women and healthcare providers in Tanzania. This study is based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork that involved participant observation, a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews with women, and informal conversations with women and health providers who had experience with oxytocin during childbirth. The study shows that the use of oxytocin for labour augmentation is coproduced through intersubjective negotiations between women and health providers. Although it partially contradicts official guidelines, both groups view it as beneficial, thereby normalising its use and weakening the existing debate that portrays women primarily as subjects of medicalised care.
Recommended Citation
Mohamed, Latifa Abdulla; Sambaiga, Richard; Moland, Karen Marie; and Lange, Siri
(2026)
"Medicalisation and the Practice of Labour Augmentation in Mwanza, Tanzania,"
Tanzania Journal of Sociology: Vol. 12:
Iss.
1, Article 13.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.65085/2591-6963.1166
Available at:
https://commons.udsm.ac.tz/tjso/vol12/iss1/13