Taking Back Birth: Alternative Birth Professionals Empowering Women in Childbirth

In my research I examine how alternative birth professionals empower women in childbirth. Through discussions and in-depth interviews with midwives and doulas in the Pacific Northwest, I show how midwifery and doula care use a combination of ideologies, techniques and processes to help women in labor and beyond. I present three ways that midwives and doulas empower women in childbirth. Firstly, alternative birth professionals reframed childbirth by normalizing “natural” birth and by providing “woman-centered” care. Secondly, they supported mothers’ dreams by being advocates for the education of their clients and respecting the process of labor. Thirdly, they “held space” for safe physical and emotional ethereal environments for women during and after childbirth. In my final analysis I explore midwifery and doula work as feminist professions that aim to foster empowerment for women in childbirth through the culminating process of feminist praxis