DOCSLIB.ORG

Copyright by Ashley N. Mack 2013

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Copyright by Ashley N. Mack 2013 Copyright by Ashley N. Mack 2013 The Dissertation Committee for Ashley N. Mack Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: DISCIPLINING MOMMY: RHETORICS OF REPRODUCTION IN CONTEMPORARY MATERNITY CULTURE Committee: Dana L. Cloud, Supervisor Joshua Gunn Barry Brummett Sharon J. Hardesty Christine Williams DISCIPLINING MOMMY: RHETORICS OF REPRODUCTION IN CONTEMPORARY MATERNITY CULTURE by Ashley N. Mack, B.A.; B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August, 2013 Dedication To Tiffany—for being an awesome lady, thinker, worker, “true” sister, daughter, and mother. Acknowledgements My family has something of a “curse”: Multiple generations of women have been single, working mothers. Therefore, the social pressures, expectations and norms of motherhood have always permeated my experiences of reproduction and labor. Everything I do has been built on the backs of the women in my family—so it is important that I thank them first and foremost. I would be remised if I did not also specifically thank my big sister, Tiffany, for sharing her experiences as a mother with me. Hearing her stories inspired me to look closer at rhetorics of maternity and this project would not exist if she were not brave enough to speak up about issues that produce shame and fear for many moms. Dana Cloud, my advisor, is a shining light at the end of the many dark tunnels that academic work can produce. Her openness, patience, and rigor helped me form and finish this project. Thank you, Dana. I also want to thank all of the professors and teachers I was guided by at UT, especially my committee members Joshua Gunn, Barry Brummett, Christine Williams and Sharon Jarvis. Josh, you have always inspired me to take risks as a thinker and writer, and every time I write with humor I will whisper thank you to you. Barry, you are a wizard who reigned in my brain and use of theory. Christine, your rigorous questions made me demand more of myself. Sharon, you brought humanity and clarity to what I was working on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Additionally, thanks must go out to the Graduate School at UT-Austin for providing me with a continuing fellowship so I could work on this project while living out of state. v To all my parents—biological, step and everything in between—thanks for conceiving me, feeding me, and supporting me through it all. Mom, you especially are just unbelievably awesome! And Dave: thanks for annoying me enough about finishing this that I forced myself to do it just so I wouldn’t have to hear you ask about it again. Special thanks to my Grandma Gladys, who passed away while I was in the middle of writing this dissertation and who in so many ways inspired me to love writing, thinking and imagining. I want to also thank my brother and photography partner, Ryan, who when I was using our business as an advanced method of procrastination, had enough sense to change the password of our e-mail account and not tell me it. Thanks for that one, Pookie. Thanks must go out to my friends and colleagues: Brandon Bumstead and my UT family, for helping me have fun when I needed it; Tiara Na’puti, for sending the best friendship, support, and care packages; Matt Morris, for always gut-checking me when I was too hard on myself; and, Katie Feyh, for always being an inspiration. Lastly, Bryan, my partner in life and work, you are the best lady a girl could ask for. Thank you for never following gender roles and rules. Also, thanks for being an excellent personal assistant when I got so overwhelmed I couldn’t function. Your labor is much appreciated and I will pay you back someday in craft beer and so many giggles. You listened to me rant for hours when neither of us had any idea what I was talking about. You typed my dictated notes when I couldn’t settle down. You moved us across the country, sold all my old books, decorated our house, and hid things from me you knew would stress me out. You’re like a magical love leprechaun and I want to make out with you so hard. vi DISCIPLINING MOMMY: RHETORICS OF REPRODUCTION IN CONTEMPORARY MATERNITY CULTURE Ashley N. Mack, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Dana L. Cloud In this dissertation, I argue that the maternal body is a chief site of discursive political and cultural struggle over gender, family, and work in a neoliberal America. I consider contemporary discourses of maternity, an aggregate I call maternity culture, as cultural products and rhetorical expressions of the antagonistic arrangements in contemporary capitalism since the neoliberal turn. The complexities of maternity culture discourses can therefore be better understood when they are historicized alongside changing economic and political realities. Using materialist feminism as my primary methodology, I contend that maternity culture discourses express the ethics of neoliberalism including the privatization of social/political responsibility and self- actualization through entrepreneurialism and labor, while simultaneously justifying the intensification of maternal labor and the continued surveillance of women’s bodies. I argue that maternity culture discourses are, therefore, rhetorics of reproduction and reproducing rhetorics. That is to say, they are a part of a larger set of discourses about the reproductive function that are themselves caught in the logics of capital that may result in the reproduction of unequal arrangements in material and symbolic life. In order vii to illuminate how maternity culture operates in neoliberal public life as a reproducing rhetoric, I provide a historical analysis of rhetorics of women’s health, and analyze two case studies involving discourses surrounding breastfeeding and natural childbirth, major sites of struggle within maternity culture. viii Table of Contents Chapter One: An Introduction to Rhetorics of Reproducing Motherhood .............1 Maternity Culture and Communication Studies .............................................7 Rhetorics of Reproduction in Communication Studies .........................7 Rhetorics of Science, Health, and Medicine ........................................11 Agency, Power, and Rhetorics of Personal Responsibility ..................12 Analyzing Maternity Culture ........................................................................18 Materialist Feminism ...........................................................................19 Maternity Culture in (New) Publics .....................................................25 Analysis of Case Studies ......................................................................32 Chapter Two: Neoliberalism and the Maternal Body ............................................45 Family and Reproduction in Industrial Capitalism ..............................46 Motherhood and Feminism in the Mid-20th Century ...........................49 Neoliberal Ethics and The Post-1970s Maternal Body ........................52 Depolicitization of Feminism ..............................................................62 Chapter Three: From the Pill to the Nipple: Rhetorics of the Women’s Health Movement and the Privatization of Women’s Health ...................................69 Rhetorics of the Radical Women’s Health Movement .................................70 A Crisis in Women’s Health ................................................................71 Beyond Boston .....................................................................................78 A Backlash and Radical Retreat ..........................................................80 The Privatization and Surveillance of Women’s Health ...............................87 Conclusion: The Rise of Maternity Culture ..................................................92 Chapter Four: “Whip ‘em out!”: Macho Maternalism in TheBump.com’s Boob- olution Campaign ..........................................................................................97 Macho maternalism .....................................................................................100 TheBump.com’s Boob-olution ....................................................................105 Show Me Your Dick! … and other Narratives of Entrepreneurialism108 The Science of Rugged Individualism ...............................................115 ix Conclusion ..................................................................................................126 Chapter Five: The Self-Made Mom: Home Birth Videos on YouTube and Rhetorics of Hard Work, Redemption and Masochism ..............................................136 Rhetorics of the Self-Made Masochist ........................................................140 Masochistic Motherhood ...................................................................145 The Self-Made Mom on YouTube ..............................................................147 Self-Sufficiency and Rugged Individualism ......................................153 Pain, Self-Optimization, and Redemption .........................................157 Conclusion ..................................................................................................166 Chapter Six: Conclusion: Disciplining the Maternal Body ................................175 Theoretical Contributions ...........................................................................177 Rhetorics of Reproduction as Reproducing Rhetorics
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sowing the Seeds
    SSSoSooowwwwiiiinnnngggg ttththhheeee SSSeSeeeeeddddssss MMAAAANNNNAAAA RRReReeeggggiiiioooonnnn 333 CCCoCooonnnnffffeeeerrrreeeennnncccceeee JJJuJuuunnnneeee 11151555,,,, 11161666,,,, &&& 11171777,,,, 22202000006666 CCCaCaaammmmpppp MMccccDDDDoooowwwweeeellllll NNNaNaaauuuuvvvvoooooo,,,, AAAlAlllaaaabbbbaaaammmmaaaa TTThThhhuuuurrrrssssddddaaaayyyy,,,, JJJuJuuunnnneeee 11151555ththth 7:00 am Breakfast 8:00 am --- 5:00 pm The Midwifery ManagementManagement of Neonatal Resuscitation Karen Strange, CPM The Midwifery Management of Neonatal Resuscitation is a class that incorporates the basic NRP hospital course with information specifically designed and taught for homebirth and birth center settings. The course covers neonatal transitional physiology, physiologic cod closure, species-specific behavior at birth, the cocktail of hormones peaking and how all of this fits into the biological imperatives for both mother and baby at birth. Controversies and upcoming guideline changes in NRP will be discussed. Participants will need to purchase the Textbook of Neonatal Resuscitation, 4 th edition. Chapters 1-4 must be read prior to the class. $145 3:00 pm --- 5:00 pm Registration 6:00 pm --- 7:00 pm Dinner 7:30 pm --- 9:00 pm Opening Ceremony & EntertaiEntertainmentnment FFFrFrrriiiiddddaaaayyyy,,,, JJJuJuuunnnneeee 11161666ththth 7:00 am --- 7:45 am Yoga 7:00 am --- 9:00 am Registration 8:00 am --- 8:45 am Breakfast 8:45 am --- 9:00 am Welcome & Announcements 9:00 am ––– 10:15 am Keynote Presentation Demand Cesareans: What the Mothers Don't Know
    [Show full text]
  • Your Name Here
    PHENOMENAL BODIES, PHENOMENAL GIRLS: HOW YOUNG ADOLESCENT GIRLS EXPERIENCE BEING ENOUGH IN THEIR BODIES by HILARY ELIZABETH HUGHES (Under the Direction of Mark D. Vagle) ABSTRACT Drawing on philosophers (Ahmed, 2006; Fanon, 1986; Heidegger, 1927, 1962, 1992; Merleau-Ponty, 1962) and social science scholars (Dahlberg, Dahlberg, & Nystrom, 2008; Vagle, 2009, 2010, 2011; van Manen, 1990, 2000) for this phenomenological study, I asked what it was like for the seventh grade girls who participated with me in a year-long writing group to experience moments where they found themselves in bodily-not-enoughness: moments when someone or something was telling them they were not enough of something in their bodies. Using a multigenre magazine format for the dissertation, I describe how I learned—as an adult, a qualitative researcher, a middle grades teacher, and a teacher educator—from these seventh grade girls how to be-enough in my own body, by illustrating various moments when some of the girls seemed to talk-back-TO those societal messages telling them they were not pretty- enough, thin-enough, English-speaking-enough, white-enough, popular-enough, or smart-enough by embodying some kind of resistance-to those messages. I then suggest that if we as adults, qualitative researchers, middle grades educators, and teacher educators wish to try and understand better how female young adolescents of color experience living in their bodies, we should begin listening differently so that we can begin seeing/knowing/thinking the bodies of young adolescents,
    [Show full text]
  • Voucher Program Growing Rapidly
    1 TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013 | YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1874 | 75¢ Lake City Reporter LAKECITYREPORTER.COM Charter school may be cut Lack of progress Baptist Church and its proposed NE Kingston school has not corrected numer- Greater Truevine started the charter school. Lane, was set to ous deficiencies that constitute charter process three years ago. cited for proposal County School Superintendent open in August, noncompliance with the contract, They expected to open in August to cancel contract. Terry Huddleston has recom- but it has yet the letter said. 2012, but had to file an amend- mended that the School Board to meet numer- “To date, the school has failed ment to push the opening date By AMANDA WILLIAMSON terminate the charter contract ous require- to meet generally accepted stan- back by another year. [email protected] it currently has with the church ments needed dards of fiscal management, facil- “They have done very little, during the board meeting tonight Huddleston first, according ity readiness, personnel require- as of being prepared to open,” The Columbia County School at 7 p.m. in the School Board to a letter draft- ments and insurance require- in the year since, assistant District may cut ties with the Complex auditorium. ed by assistant superintendent ments, among other material Greater Truevine Missionary Vine Academy of the Arts, 217 Narragansett Smith. The charter issues,” the letter said. BOARD continued on 3A Voucher BLACK WATER CHURNS program growing rapidly Nearly 11,000 students added to non-public school rolls in past year. By BRANDON LARRABEE The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — The state’s vouch- er-like system that allows students to attend private schools experienced record enrollment growth in 2012-13, according to a state report, and a spokesman said the program expects to add even more students in the upcoming year.
    [Show full text]
  • Manhood in the Age of Aquarius | Chapter 5
    Manhood in the Age of Aquarius Chapter 5 Tim Hodgdon Chapter 5 "We Here Work as Hard as We Can": The Farm's Sexual Division of Labor In the spring of 1975, Patricia Mitchell, her preschool son, and her lover, Don 1 Lapidus, arrived at the entrance to The Farm, hoping to join. They had read about the burgeoning commune in its book-length recruitment brochure, Hey, Beatnik, and after much discussion, had packed their possessions in their car. At the front gate, a man with a clipboard described the hippie village as a monastery of householder yogis where Stephen Gaskin's teachings guided daily labor and family life. Gaskin's students, he said, agreed to live together nonviolently, to consume a strictly vegan diet, and to hold all money and property in common. After some time at the gate, the three were admitted as "soakers," soaking up the new life that was The Farm.1 A member of the gate crew drove the new soakers to their host households. The 2 Mitchell-Lapidus trio were welcomed into a structure consisting of a large army tent (recall the frame–and–canvas structures in the television comedy M*A*S*H) flanked by two Caravan-vintage school buses, where twelve people made their home. For the duration of their time as soakers, the family slept on a couch in the tent.2 They arrived in time to help with preparations for dinner. Patricia joined women in the kitchen area of the tent, washing potatoes from the previous year's harvest.3 Over dinner, their hosts reminisced about The Farm's beginnings.
    [Show full text]
  • CPM News Winter 2005.P65
    North American Midwives Registry of Midwives news of North America Providing certification standards for Volume VIII, Issue 1, Winter 2005 Certified Professional Midwives Interview with Kristie White: The 1000th CPM! by Robbie Davis-Floyd Kristie, why did you decide to become a midwife? SUPPORTER Inside This Issue Well, I have always been very passionate about womens issues, especially sur- rounding women and their children. It always seemed so natural to have chil- Interview with Kristie White: The 1000th CPM! . 1 dren, breastfeed them, and love them. I decided to become a midwife after the Tribute to Carrie Abbott . 2 birth of my third child. I had had hospital births with my first two children. The second birth was very traumatic for me because I was treated very badly by hospi- Heeding Womens Call: An Interview with Maggie Bennett, CPM . 3 tal staff. When I became pregnant again, I Catch the vision of . was completely devastated at the idea of hav- The Future of Birth . 4 ing another hospital birth so I began looking Results of National Study of Vaginal Birth for options. I found out about midwives and after Cesarean in Birth Centers . 5 began prenatal care with a wonderful midwife A Critique of NACC VBAC Study . 5 in California. I had a beautiful home birth. Legislative News: During that pregnancy I had to really fight to get insurance coverage for the birth. I even Moving the CPM Credential Forward through Midwifery Legislation . 7 went to an administrative hearing over the Texas News . 8 matter. I realized how unfair it is for women that we cannot choose out-of-hospital birth Pennsylvania News .
    [Show full text]
  • 11/20/17–11/26/17
    Notre Dame Law School NDLScholarship Monday Morning Update Law School History 11-20-2017 MMU: 11/20/17–11/26/17 Notre Dame Law School, Student Bar Association Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/monday_morning_update Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Notre Dame Law School, Student Bar Association, "MMU: 11/20/17–11/26/17" (2017). Monday Morning Update. 98. https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/monday_morning_update/98 This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School History at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Monday Morning Update by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Fwd: MMU: 11/20 - 11/26 1 message Peter Horvath <[email protected]> Mon, Nov 20, 2017 at 9:27 AM To: [email protected] ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Andrew Magee <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Nov 20, 2017 at 9:06 AM Subject: MMU: 11/20 - 11/26 To: [email protected] Monday Morning Update November 20 - November 26 Hello Notre Dame Law School, Well, the last home game for the 3Ls has come and gone :( . Outside of the Georgia loss, it was a pretty great showing at home for the Irish. Against Navy, we did not look like our normal, dominant home-selves, however we still were able to grind out a hard-fought victory vs a rival on a cold, rainy day in South Bend. Marshmallows were everywhere which prompted me to ask a lot of people where this tradition started from and I could not get an answer.
    [Show full text]
  • THE RIGHT LIVELIHOOD WAY: a Sourcebook for Changemakers
    THE RIGHT LIVELIHOOD WAY: A Sourcebook for Changemakers Compiled by Anwar Fazal & Lakshmi Menon Right Livelihood College & International People’s Agroecology Multiversity (IPAM) The Right Livelihood Way: A Sourcebook for Changemakers July 2016 Published by Right Livelihood College (RLC) C/o RLC Global Secretariat, Walter Flex Str. 3, 53113 Bonn, Germany Tel: +49(0)228/73-4907 Fax: +49 (0) 228/73-1972 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] Website: www.rightlivelihood.org/college & International People’s Agroecology Multiversity (IPAM) C/o PAN International Asia Pacific P.O. Box 1170 10850 George Town Penang, Malaysia Tel: +604-657 0271 / +604-656 0381 • Fax: +604-658 3960 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ipamglobal.org Design & layout: Cecilia Mak Cover: Recycled card Cover design: The graphic “DNA Tree of Life” on the cover is designed by B. Egan, a tattoo artist from the USA. See http://tattoosbybegan.deviantart.com/art/DNA-Tree-of-Life- 207411060 for more about her work. CONTENTS I Introduction 1 II Multiversities – 55 Inspirational Resources 4 III Projects of Hope – 155 Right Livelihood Champions 23 IV Doing the Right Livelihood Way 50 I. Social Justice: 1) Sima Samar, Afghanistan; 2) Raji Sourani, Palestine 52 Social Justice: II. Ecological Sustainability: Sulak Thai NGO, Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa 57 Ecological Foundation; 2) Agro-ecology – IPAM-PANAP, Malaysia Sustainability: III. Cultural Vibrancy: 1) International Poetry Festival of Medellin, 63 Cultural Vibrancy: Columbia; 2) Jose Antonio Abreo, Venezuela
    [Show full text]
  • GSN Edition 06-18-20
    The MIDWEEK Tuesday, June 18, 2013 Goodland1205 Main Avenue, Goodland, Star-News KS 67735 • Phone (785) 899-2338 $1 Volume 81, Number 49 8 Pages Goodland, Kansas 67735 event notice Weekend brings damaging storms By Kevin Bottrell he said. [email protected] Sherman County was mainly After a mostly dry week, a series bypassed by storms on Thursday, of evening storms dropped one and a but high winds that night damaged half inches of rain over the weekend, a half-finished fertilizer silo at bringing with them damaging wind, the Goodland Business Park. Bill hail and lighting. Schields with Crop Production Rainfall reports always vary Services said the structural strength throughout the county, The National of the silo comes from the top and Weather Service station on the bottom, and the roof hadn’t been put north end of Goodland, reported on yet. A strong gust of wind folded just .03 inches on Friday. Storms on the south side inward. Schields Saturday and Sunday dropped 1.45 said the company building the tank inches all together. for Crop Production Services has With this rain, Sherman County is experience with this sort of dam- up to 2.39 inches in June, 1.76 inch- age, and it would only set them back es above the average. The area is still This half-finished fertilizer silo at Crop Production Services was bent inward by a gust of wind on about a week. under the average for the year. The Thursday. Crews worked over the weekend to repair the damage. Speaking to the Star-News on Fri- Baseball weather service has recorded 6.75 Photo by Kevin Bottrell/The Goodland Star-News day, Floyd called Thursday a “mar- inches so far in 2013, compared to ginally severe event” and said there the average of 8.24.
    [Show full text]
  • 1424 Fighting with at Least Two Hands Tied (Conservative
    #1424 Figh*ng with at least two hands *ed (Conserva*ve Democrats Manchin and Sinema) JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: [00:00:00] Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Le* podcast, in which we shall take a look at the poli;cs of obstruc;on in the service of big donors' interests while sacrificing the ability to run a func;oning democracy in the process, to win-win. Clips today are from The BradCast, Start Making Sense, The Majority Report, The Takeaway, Deconstructed and the Thom Hartmann Program. West Virginia's Robyn Kincaid on the maddening Joe Manchin - The BradCast - Air Date 6-9-21 BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: [00:00:26] Ac;on Funds Survey found that the bill was extremely popular among all voters in the state, Republicans, Democrats, Independents alike. In West Virginia, respondents supported the bill, the For The People Act, by 79%! 79 to 15% in favor of the For The People Act, which Joe Manchin opposes. The Democra;c proposal also enjoys high levels of support among Republicans, specifically, despite ongoing efforts from several right wing, dark money groups to have the state senators vote against it because, well, among other things, it gets their dark money out of our elec;ons, and it helps prevent billionaires that run those dark money groups from buying elec;ons. That's why, of course not a single Republican member is suppor;ng the bill, nor will they support it. That's their money, as they see it, that's their way to buy elec;ons.
    [Show full text]
  • Creativity Abounds in California's Economy
    NEWSPAPER 2ND CLASS $2.99 VOLUME 73, NUMBER 21 MAY 19–25, 2017 THE VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY FOR 72 YEARS A Free-Trade Agreement Between the U.S. and Europe Waiting in the Wings By Deborah Belgum Senior Editor Trade experts were expecting a free-trade agreement be- tween the United States and Europe to be signed, sealed and delivered by the time Barack Obama left the White House. But things didn’t turn out as planned as the political winds in Europe and the United States shifted recently from pro free trade to increased protectionism. President Donald Trump, after taking office early this year, indicated he wasn’t a big fan of multilateral free-trade accords. He quickly torpedoed the Trans-Pacific Partner- ship—the free-trade accord between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries—and then threatened to tear up the 23-year-old North American Free-Trade Agreement. ➥ Free Trade page 3 Creativity Abounds in California’s Economy By Deborah Belgum Senior Editor California is the most creative place in the United States. The state employs more people in the creative indus- tries—which include entertainment, fashion and printing and publishing—than any other state in America. In 2015, some 747,600 people in California were di- rectly employed in creative-industry jobs, a 13.5 percent increase from 2010, according to the “2017 Otis Report on the Creative Economy of California,” released on May 18 by the Otis College of Art and Design. The report was prepared by the Institute for Applied ➥ Otis page 4 INSIDE: Game On Where fashion gets down to business SM Academy of Art University fashion design graduate Jeanne Marie Sanguinetti 2 9 created a collection inspired by the 1980s arcade game Pac-Man, which featured LED lights, 3-D-printed elements and headphones shaped like Pac-Man Remembering Larry Hymes ..
    [Show full text]
  • Pop Culture Politics Student Life and the Like Summer 2009
    DECONSTRUCTIONPop Culture Politics Student Life and the like Summer 2009 A Few Parting Words... Our last issue of Deconstruction. Ever. As freshmen four years ago, we never thought this day would arrive. The end comes with a melancholic jumble of both sadness and relief. As Publicity Director and Cultural Editor (as well as Writ- ers/ Copy Editors/ Artists/ Readers/ Supporters/ Overall DEcon Lovers) it is hard to believe that we will never again be a part of such an eclectic publication with a staff just as eclectic and wonderful. While the poignancy of the final is- sue is overwhelming, we are relieved that we will never again have to scramble to pull articles together, pull a cover out of thin air or have to see the inside of the Morris Library Mac Lab… Relieved that we are able to graduate on May 30th and leave the future of DEcon in capable hands. This final issue of DEcon almost didn’t happen. The overwhelming stress of classes, exams, jobs etc. really gripped us all, however, we knew that ending our time here at UD without a final issue just wasn’t right. Thanks to a select few, we were able to pull this compilation together and present it to you. We want to thank you all for being loyal readers and supporters these past couple of years and hope that you will continue to read, contribute and enjoy Deconstruction after we are gone. Consider this issue as toast to the future, though foggy and unpredictable it may seem. As daunting as it sounds, we all will be moving on, leaving the Blue Hen nest Delaware has so kindly provided for us and bravely taking flight into the real world.
    [Show full text]
  • Women's Experiences Choosing Midwifery and Home Birth
    TRUST AND TRANSFORMATION: WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES CHOOSING MIDWIFERY AND HOME BIRTH IN ONTARIO, CANADA by Shawna Healey DiFilippo A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Shawna Healey DiFilippo 2014 TRUST AND TRANSFORMATION: WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES CHOOSING MIDWIFERY AND HOME BIRTH IN ONTARIO, CANADA Shawna Healey DiFilippo Master of Arts Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education University of Toronto 2014 Abstract Using a critical feminist approach, and with attention to participants’ broad life experiences, this qualitative study explores seven women’s challenging, transformative decisions to give birth at home with midwives in Ontario, Canada. To make this choice, the women had to draw on their own strength, take responsibility for their decisions, and resist the dominant view of birth as inherently risky, and of women’s birth experiences as unimportant and incompatible with more narrowly defined good outcomes. As participants became informed decision-makers, resisted medicalized birth, and envisioned more woman-centred possibilities, they were empowered as active agents in their births. They were able to trust that with the care of their midwives, and the support of their partners or close family, they could have satisfying and safe births at home. ii Acknowledgments My sincere thanks to: the women who volunteered for this study, for welcoming me into their homes and workplaces, and for sharing their time and personal experiences with me; midwifery practices and their clients for allowing me to attend their prenatal classes and home birth information nights; my thesis supervisor and professor, Dr.
    [Show full text]