We Deliver our Children - in Pain?

In this paper, we want to suggest that the emotions and sensations that would occur during birth - always assumed to reside in a single, personal body-subject - too are rendered (in)visible and (in)existant in specific ways. As traces of the birth process are being produced by many different participants, so may emotions and sensations. Our point is that given the claim of obstetrical care- givers that birth is a centered and as such highly important event for women as whole persons, it makes sense to study to what extent and how this claim is materialized in birth settings. We assume and argue that sensations, emotions - the domain of psychologists and neurologists mainly - result from specific sociotechnical practices. This does not imply that other professionals studying joy, desires, pain, speak nonsense. It does imply, however, that it makes sense for anthropologists/sociologists of technology too to study such private parts