Labor and memory importance to recover the knowledge of traditional birth attendants

For centuries, labor was kept as a private care for women and carried out by traditional birth attendants; women whose knowledge was practical and transmitted through generations. Having as starting point Halbwachs' arguments regarding the articulation between individual and collective memories, we display thoughts regarding the importance of preserving the memories of traditional birth attendants and the implications of the transmission and receiving processes of their experiences. The present study is a part of the author's doctoral thesis that among her study themes, discusses the significance of traditional birth attendants’ memory considering it as indispensable to recover the childbirth humanity and the dignity of women facing this special period of their lives. The traditional birth attendants’ memories are part of a memory that is not only theirs, but of many other women, who bring with them the need to provide assistance to other women, so this makes them part of a certain social group with a a type of belonging ; the groups put people in concrete social marks. Individual memory does not exist to the detriment of collective memory; we realize that the traditional birth attendants' memories are being underestimated, suppressed and at risk of extinction.