Dream birth or birth trauma? On the new discomfort of birth

Graz cooperation partner: Prof. Dr. Stephan Moebius, Institute of Sociology
Junior Fellow: Franziska Marek

Incoming Senior Fellow: Dr. Sabine Flick, Institute of Sociology, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Incoming Junior Fellows: Friederike Hesse

Period: September 2020 to August 2021
Symposium: November 2020

Content:

For a few years now, activists of the so-called "Roses Revolution" have been campaigning against obstetric violence in Europe. They refer to experiences of disrespectful treatment and unjustified treatment, including physical abuse, that women experience during childbirth. While the WHO has already published a statement on this, the discussions about 'Black Birthing Justice' in the USA point to racist structures in obstetrics and in some Latin American countries obstetric violence is already being negotiated as a legal issue, the debate in Europe has only just begun.

Interestingly, the European, particularly German-speaking discussion focuses strongly on the psychological aspects of experiences of obstetric violence. Mothers, doulas and midwives describe traumatic experiences during childbirth and derive subsequent problems with breastfeeding, depression and bonding problems with the infant from these traumas. Against the backdrop of emerging criticism of current conditions during childbirth, the joint project examines which social and cultural processes of change in childbirth are effective from a gender-theoretical perspective. Notions of normality with regard to birth experiences appear to be shifting towards a charging of birth with claims to self-fulfilment and thus a shift towards birth as a project. The birth experience is charged as a quasi-transcendent experience and thus becomes a biographical event. This enormous charging of the birth event could possibly contribute to the idealized process being contrasted and possibly disappointed by the real clinical experience, which is then experienced as traumatic and/or violent. This development includes a paradoxical simultaneity of the increase in the autonomy of pregnant women and women giving birth in terms of freedom of choice and birth options, while at the same time making them more responsive. This change in experience, articulation and the concrete conditions for birth will be investigated in the project.

To this end, there was a call for abstracts for a special issue of the Austrian Journal of Sociology on the topic of "Birth Cultures in Transition", edited by Sabine Flick, Friederike M. Hesse and Franziska Marek. More information about the call (PDF).

 

About the project

Cultures of Birthing in Transition

Cultures of Birthing

Like other biosocial practices, practices surrounding the 'event of birth' are subject to socio-cultural change. Currently, there is increasing criticism of various aspects of the birth event and in particular of obstetric practices, which seem to indicate a new discomfort with birth. Birth mothers in particular are also expressing themselves via social media, as the hashtag “#metoo in the delivery room” impressively demonstrates. These debates also include the formerly emancipatory/feminist struggles for autonomy and self-determined childbirth, which are currently proving to be ambivalent, however, as they are sometimes relativized by various structural developments. This reveals specific tensions that point to social dynamics.

Various trends can be identified as triggers for these dynamics: an increasing economization of medical facilities, pathology-oriented care concepts and inadequate working conditions in obstetrics. These are accompanied by changes in professional responsibilities and the emergence of new groups of actors, such as the spread of doulas in Europe. At the same time, the charging of birth with claims to self-fulfilment and a shift towards birth as a 'project' has been discussed for some years now. In the increase in the autonomy of pregnant women and women giving birth, with regard to their freedom of choice and the possibilities of reproductive healthcare, specific modes of subjectivation and responsibilization are also becoming effective. Sometimes public contributions refer to the desire for a 'natural' or 'gentle' birth, which usually goes hand in hand with a naturalization of bodies, gender, motherhood and femininity. The practices of single birth and home birth, in which the 'somatic knowledge' of the woman giving birth is supposed to (once again) take center stage, are relevant examples of the phenomenon of the bioromanticization of birth.

Those whose bodies are governed differently by biopolitical means are overlooked in this possibly quite Eurocentric perspective on birth: The dispositif of pregnant women provided with a normative body regulates access to places of birth. Racialization and social inequalities are thus inscribed in the ideal-typical construction of 'good' birth experiences. For example, the discussions about 'Black Birthing Justice' in the USA refer specifically to racist structures in obstetrics. In some Latin American countries, obstetric violence is already being negotiated as a legal issue. In Europe, too, a debate is now being articulated about access to birth practices and the related birth experience of the subjects. For some years now, activists from the so-called 'Roses Revolution' have been campaigning against obstetric violence in Europe. They refer to experiences of disrespectful treatment and unjustified treatment, including physical abuse, experienced by women giving birth. Women speak publicly about birth experiences described as traumatic and refer in this context to the consequences of the far-reaching medicalization of birth.

Giving birth can therefore be understood as a revealing governmental biopolitical practice; birth experiences reflect a highly complex and intersectional interplay of social power structures. The project 'Birth Cultures' addresses the social change surrounding birth/birthing from a cultural-theoretical perspective insofar as orders of knowledge enable and restrict social practices.

 

Symposium

Cultures of Birthing - Birth Cultures in Transition

November 10 & 11, 2020
Two-day symposium with lectures by

Dr. Rachelle Chadwick (University of Pretoria, South Africa): Birth and the politics of un/happiness
Dr. habil.in Sabine Flick (University of Graz, Austria): Dream birth or birth trauma? On the new discomfort with birth
JProf.in Dr.in Lisa Malich (University of Lübeck, Germany): The feelings of women giving birth. A history of somatic emotionality