Frontiers in Global Women s Health · Published 2026-07-29 · DOI 10.3389/fgwh.2026.1832260
Pía Rodríguez-Garrido, Yennifer Márquez-Mosquera, Nadia Salazar-Toro, Pía Villarroel-Vergara
BackgroundGlobal efforts to improve maternal and newborn outcomes increasingly promote respectful, person-centered, and midwife-led models of care. However, their implementation continues to face structural barriers rooted in biomedical paradigms, professional hierarchies, and institutional forms of violence. In Chile, some midwives have developed counter-hegemonic practices that challenge these barriers while strengthening professional leadership and transformative approaches to care. This study explores how such practices contribute to leadership development and care transformation.MethodA qualitative collective case study grounded in feminist decolonial epistemologies was conducted. Three Chilean midwives participated in a body mapping process, a participatory and reflexive method used to document professional trajectories, lived experiences, and territorial belonging. Data were analyzed through visual interpretation and collective reflection.ResultsThree interrelated processes were identified: critical reflection on biomedical and institutional norms, including experiences of obstetric violence; recovery and validation of community-based and alternative knowledges; and recognition of territory and lived experience as central to respectful and person-centered care. These processes strengthened professional agency and supported the development of situated and socially accountable models of care.DiscussionCounter-hegemonic midwifery practices function as professional and political forms of leadership that challenge dominant paradigms while promoting collective learning and transformation within health systems.ConclusionThe experiences of these Chilean midwives highlight how leadership, professional identity, and transformative care practices can emerge through situated, experiential, and community-based forms of knowledge, contributing to current discussions on midwifery education and leadership.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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Rodríguez-Garrido, P., Márquez-Mosquera, Y., Salazar-Toro, N., et al. (2026). Body maps of counter-hegemonic midwifery practices in Chile: a collective case study. Frontiers in Global Women s Health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2026.1832260