Cross-national comparison is an important tool for health care research, but too often those who use this method fail to consider important inter-national differences in the social organisation of health care and in the relationship between health care practices and social experience. In this...

In lay terms, childbirth is regarded as a purely biological event: what is more natural than birth and death? On the other hand, social scientists have long understood that \'natural\' events are socially structured. In the case of birth, sociologists have examined the social and cultural...