FURTHER NOTES ON RECORD TAKING AND MAKING IN MATERNITY CARE - THE CASE OF SOUTH ASIAN DESCENT WOMEN

This paper draws on data from a small-scale ethnographic study of the delivery of maternity care to South Asian descent women in a hospital in Southern England during 1988. Stereotyped views of these women which related to their customs and culture as well as their typification as patients were commonly expressed by staff, particularly midwives. The paper examines the role of medical records and record making in stereotyping Asian women: the ways in which stereotyped views of women may affect the record making process; and how that process itself may reinforce and create stereotypes. The utility of records for 'rate production' purposes is also discussed. The focus of the paper is the creation of a woman's maternity records which occurs in the antenatal clinic. The transformation of stigmatised views of a client into 'facts' about a client is common among bureaucrats, in this setting health service staff. This process affects the client's future encounters with the bureaucracy. In medical settings records (ie the case notes) help to create, transmit and reify negative stereotypes of health service users. These stereotypes can affect the kind of care given to individual patients.