“How I Gave Birth” (and Why I Am Writing about It): Women’s Narratives of First Childbirth Experiences from Internet Publications

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the research of the structures and meaningful concepts of women’s stories about the first childbirth, obtained by their personal experience in the governmental obstetrical system. Narratives of childbirth contain complex knowledge including description of physiological and emotional reactions and characteristics of Russian maternal initiation practices, culminating in the maternity ward. Similar narratives posted on social network and web pages of family portals reveal elements of hypertext and several leading factors of their origin, such as being the consolidation of a new identity through a retrospective autobiographical story, joining the community of motherhood, broadcasting experience to its new members, etc.

Trayectorias y avatares de las parentalidades contemporáneas a través de contextos digitales: una revisión sistemática

“…Situaciones específicas en las que las madres buscan apoyarse entre sí, remiten a mujeres que a través de lo digital intercambian narraciones de sus partos, de los procedimientos y los obstáculos que enfrentaron al dar a luz (Gramatchikova, 2020;Sanders, 2019). Igualmente, visibilizan, en los foros en línea, los problemas de salud y salud mental que pueden devenir posteriores al parto (Rouhi et al, 2020).…”

Activism and Patient Vulnerability: Resistance to Medical Authority and Regulation in Russia

“…In narratives from the Soviet and post-Soviet eras, there was practically no mention of independent choice and freedom of action in medical institutions and official discourses, or indeed of the involvement of family members or independent participants in medical care during childbirth [Belousova 2003[Belousova , 2012Olson and Adon'eva 2013;Rivkin-Fish 2005;Rouhier-Willoughby 2003, 2008]. However, in contemporary narratives, Russian women convey their agency in some detail and negotiate with the obstetric system for various options [Gramatchikova 2020;Kuksa 2020bKuksa , 2021aKuksa , 2021bKuksa and Shnyrova 2021;Temkina and Rivkin-Fish 2020]. Thus, my fieldwork shows that women now plan and shape the birth process much more than they did in first two decades after the fall of the USSR.…”