The Unassisted Childbirth Movement : Questions of Autonomy , Intuition , and Empowerment in the Familial and Communal Context

As an alternative to the mainstream medicalization of childbirth, which historically defines pregnancy as an abnormal physical condition and posits the laboring woman as a passive patient in need of control, assistance and repair, the homebirth movement offers a familyor community-centered approach to childbirth. The primary goal of honoring and empowering the laboring woman is argued by homebirth advocates to be best realized in the domestic (or occasionally the birthing center) setting. Usually a homebirth is attended not only by family and friends (including the husband or partner, children, relatives, etc.) but also by a midwife who delivers the newborn and perhaps even a doula who offers emotional support by “mothering the mother.” By emphasizing the subjectivity and sexuality of the laboring mother-to-be in the context of her home, family, and social network, the homebirth event may be simultaneously intimate and communal. Although there is an underlying understanding within the homebirth movement that every birth is unique and therefore may play out in an infinite number of ways, there exists an arguably radical sub-movement within homebirth ideologies: the unassisted or autonomous childbirth movement.