Abstract
This chapter is a discussion of the global rise in birth intervention that foregrounds the central concern of the book: the use of epidural analgesia in labour. Epidural analgesia is identified as a measure of the technologisation of childbirth and the argument for a closer, more critical look at this intervention is mounted. We set out the background and motivation for this ethnographic study of epidural analgesia and birth culture, including the personal motivation of the lead author, who is a midwife. The structure of the book is outlined.
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Notes
- 1.
Recent conversations on social media forums acknowledged that the term ‘normal birth’ has been useful for the purpose of drawing attention to the de-medicalisation of birth but raised the possibility that there is a need to redefine or rethink the term because it dichotomises women’s experience: by default, women who do not achieve a ‘normal’ birth must have had an ‘abnormal birth’.
- 2.
For example, changes to Australian perinatal statistics collection from 2007 include the changing of the term ‘spontaneous vaginal birth’ to ‘non-instrumental birth’ and ‘vaginal breech birth’ ceased to be a category (Hilder et al. 2014, p. 43), meaning that the physical act of spontaneous vaginal birth is now only defined by medicalised birth language and vaginal breech birth is now invisible.
- 3.
We refer here to medical and midwifery models, or systems. We do not refer to individual practitioners (midwives or doctors), who might work in either model depending on their philosophy of birth, nor to practitioner gender.
- 4.
There is also a radical phenomenological branch of CMA. We are using the political economy approach here, in agreement with Singer and Baer, who convey that analysis at a structural level is important for change (Singer and Baer 1995, p. 5).
- 5.
Thomas (1993, p. 12) defines culture as shared group identity, including aesthetics and morals, understanding of common language, discourse, and behaviour.
- 6.
Social emancipation in this context means recognising alternative ways of thinking (Thomas 1993, p. 4).
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Newnham, E., McKellar, L., Pincombe, J. (2018). Introduction. In: Towards the Humanisation of Birth. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69962-2_1
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