Retracing Midwifery and Reimagining Maternal Care through the Voices of Bibbiana Cau and Giuliana Musso

Abstract

This essay explores Bibbiana Cau's novel La levatrice (2025), and Giuliana Musso's theatrical monologue Nati in casa (2006). Each reevaluates the importance of midwives as vital members of rural communities and skilled healthcare providers and is based on extensive archival research and oral interviews, rooted in a strong commitment to giving voice to women's reproductive experiences. This article provides a historical overview to contextualize the enactment of laws that professionalized midwifery. It then draws on concepts in reproductive justice studies to show how the works reveal the adverse effects of medicalization on the development of obstetric care, and on matricentric feminism to demonstrate how the narratives underpin midwifery's holistic approach, which prioritizes the mother's unique needs and autonomy. Further, it outlines how the artists seek to forge new legacies with women from the past, opening new paths of inquiry and reimaging the present with a renewed notion of women's care.