A Critical Analysis of the Medical Model as used in the Study of Pregnancy and Childbirth

One key concept in medical sociology/anthropology for the analysis of approaches to health and illness is the medical model. However, this medical model is not only applied at the analytical level, i.e. as a sociological tool, but it also appeals to health service providers at a practical level as a model of working practice. This paper challenges the uncritical use of the medical model by practitioners and social scientists alike. The purpose of this paper is to separate and analyse the three different levels of understanding expressed in any model of childbirth, whether medical or social: (1) the practical; (2) the ideological and (3) the analytical level. Social scientists are advised to reflect on the question: 'At what level am I using the medical model as a theoretical concept in my work?' This is necessary not only to avoid further confusion, but also to ensure that our sociological tools maintain their ability to analyse the social world appropriately, without becoming 'blunt' due to the uncritical use

Ironic Recruitment Advert?

Is it ironic or just telling that on the very same BMJ.com webpage as James Buchan's short article on Challenges for WHO code on international recruitment [1] we see an advert recruiting overseas doctors to the UK? The advert asks: "Want to work in the UK? Click here for jobs that may be suitable for application by non-UK or non-EEA doctors." Some of the target audience of this advert will be the very doctors so very much needed in countries of the South. When we talk about global migration of doctors we must bear in mind that this phenomenon is neither new nor always 'bad'. First, some elements of the current doctor migration are no different from Scottish doctors going to study and work in Leiden, Padua or Heidelberg centuries ago. Secondly, going somewhere else can be beneficial for the development of individual doctors and for medicine in general. Thus doctors from developing countries coming to the UK or the USA to learn new techniques and skills which are not available at home is beneficial, the problem here occurs when large proportions of these doctors do not return home. The active recruitment of doctors by developed countries should be seen separate from the above and we should treat it probably as much an economic as a moral issue

Measuring patient satisfaction to allocate NHS funding: Opening a can of worms? Rapid Responses to: NEWS: Jacqui Wise: Part of hospitals’ funding will depend on patient satisfaction ratings from 2010-11 BMJ 2009; 339: b5451

Short piece, just over 400 words, without an Abstrac

Reply to Robert Dingwall’s Plenary ‘Confronting the 'Anti-Democrats: The Unethical Nature of Ethical Regulation in Social Science'

Short correspondence no abstract writte

Book Editor’s Note for Novice Reviewers

After several years as book review editor for Sociological Research Online it is time for me to put some of my experiences on paper. This short reflective paper aims to help potential contributors to write a ‘better’, ‘more useful’ or even ‘more interesting’ book review

A Critical Analysis of the Medical Model As Used in the Study of Pregnancy and Childbirth

One key concept in medical sociology/anthropology for the analysis of approaches to health and illness is the medical model. However, this medical model is not only applied at the analytical level, i.e. as a sociological tool, but it also appeals to health service providers at a practical level as a model of working practice. This paper challenges the uncritical use of the medical model by practitioners and social scientists alike. The purpose of this paper is to separate and analyse the three different levels of understanding expressed in any model of childbirth, whether medical or social: (1) the practical; (2) the ideological and (3) the analytical level. Social scientists are advised to reflect on the question: 'At what level am I using the medical model as a theoretical concept in my work?' This is necessary not only to avoid further confusion, but also to ensure that our sociological tools maintain their ability to analyse the social world appropriately, without becoming 'blunt' due to the uncritical use.Medical Sociology, Childbirth, Medical Model, Social Model, Midwifery, Pregnancy, Child Birth, Risk, Medicalisation.

Health Care Insurance Key Political issue in the USA

Letter to news item in the British Medical Journa