1960年代以後，臺灣社會的生產逐漸進入醫療模式，帶著科技能有效掌控生產的現代性信念，醫療主導了臺灣當代的生產。然而，科技真的無所不能？它能在多大的程度上掌握生產？臺灣產科社群對於科技有著什麼樣的信念？與科技實際上能掌控生產的程度之間，有沒有落差？當落差發生時，醫師如何因應？如何影響臺灣婦女的生產經驗？我根據2008年與2009年於台北與桃園地區進行的民族誌研究來回答這些問題。本文分析場景為臺灣醫師因應降低剖腹產政策而採取的產檢監控，包括為了評估風險（透過測量骨盆與胎兒體重評估產婦們需要剖腹產的機率），與壓低風險（透過所謂「預防性醫療干預」降低剖腹產機率）所使用的醫療技術。一方面，本文探索隱身於這套措施背後的專業文化，呈現臺灣產科社群對於科技的高度信仰；另一方面，藉著描述這些為降低剖腹產而強化的科技監控，如何反而增加了剖腹產發生的可能性，突顯此種現代性信念本身存在著一定的矛盾與侷限。同時，以儘管崇尚自然產、卻終究選擇剖腹產的婦女為例，本文呈現儘管醫師們不斷遭遇科技本身的極限與不確定性，此種信仰科技與強調生產風險的醫療觀點仍逐漸影響婦女的生產認知。當人們急切擁抱科技與現代性、卻未能省視其中侷限，需要付出什麼代價，又是誰在承擔這些代價？本文以生產為例，探索這些問題，或許也能呈現出臺灣社會在這個特定歷史脈絡中的某種現代性經驗。

Since the late 1960s, childbirth in Taiwan has been gradually medicalized. With the idea that technology can control childbirth, the medical model dominates childbirth in contemporary Taiwan. However, can technology perfectly control childbirth? Does technological control over childbirth ever reach its limit? What are the Taiwanese obstetric community’s beliefs about technology? How do these beliefs influence women’s birthing experiences? I answer these questions based on my ethnographic research in Taipei and Touyuan from 2008 to 2009. This article focuses on the prenatal surveillance by which Taiwanese obstetricians attempt to reduce Cesarean rates as a response to policy. The obstetricians conduct prenatal assessment on how possible it is for a woman to complete vaginal birth, mainly through measuring fetal weight and pelvic size. They implement so-called “preventive interventions,” such as labor induction, when the possibility is low. On the one hand, I examine the professional beliefs behind these clinical practices, and show the strong technocratic values among Taiwanese obstetricians. On the other hand, I analyze how this prenatal surveillance may increase, instead of reducing, Cesarean sections. In doing so, I highlight the contradiction between the obstetricians’ beliefs in technology, and the constraints of technology itself. Meanwhile, although the obstetricians constantly face the limits of technology, their technocratic values are widespread and significantly influence women’s birthing experiences. Based on this analysis, this article is also concerned with the following questions: What prices do people have to pay when they pursue modernity without reflecting on the limits of technology? Who pays for it? This article shows how childbirth has become an arena where people struggle between their technocratic values and the limits of technology.