"This magical book takes us deep inside the secrets held by the mothers of Mozambique, revealing their darkest fears about pregnancy and birth. These fears, as Chapman tellingly shows, involve their relationships with other women, their profound concerns about the perceived physical effects of gossip, and their highly troubled and problematic relationships with biomedicine and with their own indigenous healing systems. Based on outstanding ethnography, Chapman's work takes the outsider inside, giving her readers both insight into these women's lives and relationships, and a deep structural understanding of the cultural and global factors that influence their most intimate reproductive experiences. A must-read for anyone interested in how the politics of reproduction affect the women who reproduce!" -- Robbie Davis-Floyd, PhD , author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage and co-editor of Birth Models That Work.