Download Medicalisation of Childbirth

Transformations: Gender, Reproduction,
and Contemporary Society
Week 8: Giving Birth to Children and Mothers
Dr SherahWells
[email protected]
PPUpdateSWells11.2012
Structure of the Lecture
 Homebirth – a debate
 The Medicalisation of
Childbirth
 Women’s experiences of birth
 Midwifes at Work
 The future…
 International Perspectives
The Homebirth Debate
Homebirth
vs.
Hospital birth
The Rise and Rise of Hospital Births
 1920s: 80% of UK births at home
 1991: 1% of UK births at home
 2006: 2.6% of UK births at home
Medicalisation of Childbirth
Feminist Critique of the Medicalisation of
Childbirth
17th century conceptualisation of the body as a machine in need of
regulation
Boundaries around medicine discredited midwives
 New surgical instruments
 Women denied access to medical training
19th century forceps
Professionalisation and Gendered
Exclusion
3 midwives attending to a
pregnant woman
1500s woodcut
Obstetrical examination
1822 engraving
Martin’s Medical Metaphors
‘the womb and the uterus were spoken of “as though they
formed a mechanical pump that in particular instances was more
or less adequate to expel the foetus”’ (Martin, 1992, p. 54).
Birth as factory production: ‘the uterus is held to a reasonable
“progress”, a certain “pace” and not allowed to stop and start with
its natural rhythm’ (ibid, p. 59).
Regulating the ‘Machine’
Discourse of time and
motion
Emphasis on efficiency,
predictability, productivity
Deviation = intervention
Women’s Experiences of Childbirth
‘The main trauma for me was all the intervention: being
induced, having my waters broken for me and being
examined all the time… my labour didn’t progress well
because I didn’t dilate enough. In the end they had to use
both forceps and a ventouse suction cup to get Amelie out,
which was frightening and stressing… Staff were too busy
to explain what they were doing and why. I didn’t know
what was happening or going to happen, and I didn’t like
that lack of control’
(Guardian, 15 November 2010)
Women’s Experiences of Childbirth
‘I really felt a lot of control all the way through, and I think
one of my biggest fears about hospitals was not being in
control… I felt like I was making the decisions’.
(Fox and Worts, 1999, p. 335)
Women’s Experiences of Childbirth
‘I had a highly medicated birth--pitocin to induce
contractions because my water was leaking, then Stadol for
the pain… and then (hooray!) the epidural. And
episiotomy. Lots of medical intervention. And it was
actually a pretty great experience because the people
around me were sensitive to my needs and desires and
cared for me in the way that I personally needed. My nurse
was fantastic--very nurturing and reassuring. At all times I
felt like I had control of the situation…’
http://mommyphd.blogspot.com/2006/10/positivebirth-experience-can-happen.html
Control and Decision-making
Fox and Worts: Control and autonomy are crucial to
women having a positive experience of birth – even
with intervention
Technology: Empowering or Disempowering? Both?
Resisting Medicalisation of Birth
 Similar to strategies used by workers
 Covert resistance
 Experiences differentiated by ‘race’ and class
Woman-centred vs. Institution centred
Midwifery
Conflict between teaching and practise of
midwifery
‘With woman’ vs ‘With Institution’
Authoritative knowledge about childbirth is with
the system of production and not with the women
‘I’m aware when I’m measuring a woman’s fundus, I’m not free…I
want it to measure what it’s supposed to measure on the chart erm, I
don’t want to have to send her in because it’s a little bit bigger or it’s
a little bit small. I want to protect her, I want to protect her from
feeling worried. I mean it’s ridiculous, I mean you can know if a
baby’s too big or too small, just by looking at a woman when she’s
lying down and you know how many weeks she is, you know if she’s
too big or too small, usually, you know’.
(Mia, midwife, interview 30.06.2005)
Childbirth and Midwifery Policies
1993 Department of Health report Changing Childbirth
1997 Audit Commission report First Class Delivery: Making it Better for Mothers
and Babies
2007 Department of Health guidance Maternity matters: choice, access and
continuity of care in a safe service
2008 Healthcare Commission report Towards Better Births: A review of
maternity services in England
 £330 million extra funding over 3 years from 2008
Cameron: accused of breaking pre-election promise to recruit an additional
3000 midwives
Is there a Crisis in Midwifery?
• Midwives leaving the profession, leaving training
• Walters: midwives are ‘popping in and out of three or four
labour rooms and filling out endless forms while women yell
for them’ (Guardian, 2003).
• Recruitment has increased but birth-rate has also increased
• Royal College of Midwives: 66% of midwifery heads report
insufficient staff (November 2009)
Campaigns for continuity of care
Independent Midwives
UK
www.independentmidwives.org.uk
Community Midwifery Model
Association of
Radical Midwives (ARM)
http://www.midwifery.org.uk/
• Taking midwifery ‘back to the roots’
• Re-skilling midwives
• ukmidwifery yahoo group
Association for Improvements in Maternity Services (AIMS)
www.aims.org.uk
• Pressure group
• Offers advice to women
‘Dying to have a baby’: International
Perspectives
 Chance of dying in childbirth:
Niger: 1 in 7
Sweden: 1 in 29,800 (Save the Children, 2006)
 More than 340 000 women die in pregnancy or
childbirth annually around the globe
 Many deaths are from treatable conditions such as high
blood pressure
 15 million women endure injuries, infection and
disabilities in pregnancy and childbirth
The bottom 10 countries:
Afghanistan
Central African Republic
Malawi
Chad
Sierra Leone
Lesotho
Cote d’Ivoire
Timor-Leste
Guinea
Liberia
Source: The Lancet, 12 April 2010