Abstract
A full-page color newspaper and billboard advertisement for the regional hospital during the course of the research study read:What is the relevance of this ad to a study on doula care in childbirth? Is it important to understand why a particular part of a hospital markets to patients and what that marketing is trying to portray? The answer is yes because this ad portrays two important elements about birth in the USA: First, women are viewed as the consumers of childbirth as opposed to the producers. Second, that the medical model, and technology specifically, imposes an authority over the domain of childbirth, limiting women’s own autonomy to control their own production. This chapter expands on these two arguments and explains how women have become alienated from the birthing process and their bodies devalued as an authority.
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Hunter, C.A., Hurst, A. (2016). Alienation and a Challenge to Authority in Childbirth. In: Understanding Doulas and Childbirth. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48536-6_3
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