This research comparatively and transnationally examines the historical construction of maternity in the Ecuadorian Amazon (Napo), and Mérida, Mexico, from 1940–1998. The study analyzes how local maternity practices, especially those of Indigenous midwives, engaged with evolving biomedical models promoted by national and international health systems.

Preliminary findings show a dense transnational network where U.S.-based actors significantly shaped Latin American health policies and medical frameworks. The core objective is to identify, through archival sources, the negotiations and tensions between Western biomedical medicine and ancestral Indigenous knowledge in maternal care, particularly where midwifery was central. Methodologically, the project combines historical research with oral history, collecting midwives' life histories to document their experiences and illuminate medical pluralism.