What is it about?
We report back on our initial findings from interviews with mothers, midwives, obstetricians and GPs in New Zealand and Australia. We find the provider-consumer model of thinking about maternity care is unhelpful in that it focuses on an initial marketplace choice (whether to go with an obstetrician or midwife, for example), but then glosses over the many small moments of choice and care that happen during antenatal care, labour, birth and beyond.
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Why is it important?
It is important for us to get beyond 'the birth wars' of lining up care providers with types of care, where good care is imagined as having a choice. In order for women's birthing hormonal pathways to be fully activated they need an environment of security and feeling safe and cared for. We thus need to pay attention to the full assemblage of care and the relations between carers and those being cared for.
Perspectives
This publication grew out of a keynote talk I gave at the Revolutionary Round Table -- an evening event on birthing organised by The Birthing Room birth education centre in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was a privilege to work through this material with Katharine who began this research project and directed the fieldwork, and Stephen, whose work on subjectivity and economy informed us theoretically.
Dr Kelly F Dombroski
University of Canterbury
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Beyond the birth wars: Diverse assemblages of care, New Zealand Geographer, November 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/nzg.12142.
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