ABSTRACT

Birthing Autonomy brings some balance to the difficult arguments that arise from debates about home births, and focuses on women’s views and their experiences of planning home births. It provides an in-depth exploration of how women make decisions about home births and what aspects matter most to them. Comparing how differently the pros and cons of home births are constructed and contemplated by mothers and by the medical profession, the book looks at how current obstetric thinking and practices can disempower and harm women emotionally and spiritually as well as physically.

Written in an accessible style, this book is enlightening for student and practicing midwives and obstetricians, as well as researchers and students of nursing, medical sociology, health studies, gender studies, feminist practitioners and theorists. It will also be invaluable to expectant mothers who want to be more informed about the choices they are facing and the wider context within which their birth options are considered.

 

chapter |18 pages

Introducing the women

chapter |23 pages

Home birth?

What's the problem?

chapter |34 pages

How have we got here?

Historical and current perspectives

chapter |54 pages

What's safe and what's risky?

chapter |47 pages

‘What I really need is support'

Relationships between womenl and midwives

chapter |49 pages

They think it's best'

The ethical implications of obstetrics

chapter |8 pages

Where now?