Since the natural childbirth movement of the 1960's and 1970's in the United States and in parts of Europe, many scholars, activists, doctors and midwives have exposed the failures of the Western, medical model of birthing to provide women-centered care in childbirth (Arms, 1975; Davis-Floyd, 2011; Edwards, 2005; Gaskin, 2003; Jordan, 1978; Klaus, 2002; Mongan, 2005; Odent, 2002; Simkin, 2008; Wagner, 2001). However, during the 20th and 21st centuries, as international development processes and hegemonic global norms have been increasingly disseminated through the processes of globalization, the Western medical model for birthing has spread around the globe (Davis-Floyd, 1997; Jordan, 1978). This thesis asks what the global potentials are for humanized birth as a means to reduce maternal mortality in a women-centered way. Through the collection of birth stories from 13 women who birthed at the Yayasan Bumi Sehat Birth Clinic in Bali, Indonesia at the end 2011, the value of the humanized birth model is explored as it contrasts the Western, technocratic, medical model of birth (Bumi Sehat Foundation, 2012; Davis- Floyd, 200; Umenai et al. 2001; Wagner, 2001). In this thesis, women's stories are valued as research evidence with particular relevance to policy guidance in support of the humanized birthing method (Carolan, 2006; VandeVusse, 1999).