Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Degree
2008
Degree Name
PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)
Degree In
American Studies
First Advisor
Susan C. Lawrence
Second Advisor
John Raeburn
First Committee Member
Tom Simmons
Second Committee Member
Ellen Lewin
Third Committee Member
Erica Prussing
Abstract
Unassisted childbirth--giving birth at home without a midwife or physician present--emerged as a movement in mid-20th century North America. While only a small number of women choose to give birth unassisted, its significance extends far beyond its numbers. Unassisted birth illuminates trends in maternity care practices that drive, and sometimes force, women to choose unassisted birth. It also is part of a larger set of connected values and lifestyle choices, including home schooling, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, ecological awareness, cloth diapering, sustainable living, and alternative medicine. Finally, the emergence of UC as a conscious birth choice requires a re-examination of how we understand, frame, and interpret childbirth paradigms.
There is very little written about unassisted birth in the academic world, although media reports on the practice have become increasingly prevalent since 2007. This dissertation begins the conversation for a scholarly inquiry into unassisted birth. My research is based primarily on interviews, essay-response surveys, and archives of internet discussion groups. After setting unassisted birth in historical context, I explain why women make this choice; the knowledge sources they privilege; how they understand the concepts of safety, risk, and responsibility, and their complex and sometimes contradictory relationship with midwifery. I also examine midwifery, and to a smaller degree, obstetrical, perspectives on unassisted birth, focusing on how birth attendants who are sympathetic to UC reconcile that with their training and experience attending births.
Unassisted birth has changed the core questions we need to ask about birth. Instead of home or hospital?, natural or epidural?, or midwife or obstetrician?, questions asked by existing models of childbirth, unassisted birth poses a different set of core questions: Is birth disturbed or undisturbed? Is it social or intimate? managed or intuitive? attended or unattended?
Keywords
childbirth, freebirth, homebirth, midwifery, pregnancy, unassisted birth
Pages
354 pages
Copyright
Copyright 2008 Rixa Ann Spencer Freeze