Giving Birth Like A Girl

Abstract

Relational, selfless, caring, polite, nice, and kind are not how we imagine a woman giving birth in U.S. culture. Rather, we picture her as screaming, yelling, self-centered, and demanding drugs or occasionally as numbed and passive from pain-killing medication. Using in-depth interviews with women about their labor and childbirth, the author presents data to suggest that white, middle-class, heterosexual women often worry about being nice, polite, kind, and selfless in their interactions during labor and childbirth. This finding is important not only because it contradicts the dominant cultural image of the birthing woman but because it reveals that an internalized sense of gender plays a role in disciplining women and their bodies during childbirth. The feminist sociological literatures on birth are concerned with how women and their bodies are controlled, yet they have overlooked this other dimension of control that is not institutional but is a product of how gender is internalized. Relational,selfless,caring,polite,nice,andkindarenothowweimagineawomangiving birth in U.S. culture. Rather, in our cultural picture (for example, episodes of ER, Murphy Brown, Chicago Hope, Mad About You, Friends, or any number of new or old television shows' portrayals of birth) she is (sometimes humorously, sometimes not) screaming, yelling, self-centered, and demanding drugs or occasionally is numbed and passive from pain-killing medication. However, I present data to suggest that some white, middle-class, heterosexual women often worry about being and often are nice, polite, kind, and selfless in their interactions during labor and childbirth. This finding is important not only because it contradicts the dominant cultural image of the birthing woman but because it reveals that an internalized sense of gender plays a role in disciplining women and their bodies during childbirth. The (overlapping) feminist and sociological literatures on birth are concerned with how women and their bodies are controlled and disempowered by social institutions during childbirth, yet they have overlooked this other dimension of

Understanding the Health Beliefs of First Time Mothers Who Request Elective Cesarean Versus Mothers who Request Vaginal Delivery

“…Physicians are also under pressure to provide perfect outcomes in a world where childbirth has to fit around financial productivity, limited healthcare resources, fear of litigation and rising cost of malpractice insurance (Bergeron, 2007). Research about internal sense of control based on perceptions of gender has indicated that white middle class women worry about being nice, polite, kind, and selfless in their interactions during labor and childbirth (Martin, 2003). Worries about interactions during childbirth for minority women are largely unknown.…”

“…The financial and social pressure to remain employed in today's culture is strong (Martin, 2003). Women move frequently, often far away from extended family and close friends so that the traditional social support for women during pregnancy and childbirth is disappearing.…”

“…Middle-class women take a more active role in the birth process and working-class women are more fatalistic about their role in the birth process (Martin, 2003;Nelson, 1983;Zadoroznyj, 1999). Lazarus (1997) reported differences in access to choices and control between socioeconomic classes.…”

“…This difference is most likely explained by scheduled induction of labor or cesarean delivery (Suplee). Additionally, middle class women who were health professionals or spouses of physicians had greater knowledge about the healthcare system and were able to exercise more control over childbirth (Martin, 2003).…”

Determinants of caesarian birth on maternal demand in the Islamic Republic of Iran: a review

“…‫املتوسط‬ ‫لرشق‬ ‫الصحية‬ ‫املجلة‬ ‫العرشون‬ ‫و‬ ‫الثالث‬ ‫املجلد‬ ‫السادس‬ ‫العدد‬ birth process, and women without such support are more fatalistic about their role in the birth process (51). Some research has shown that women who receive social support in pregnancy and during labour have lower rates of caesarean section (52).…”