Knowing Childbirth
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Knowing Childbirth: Birth Stories and Collective Learning
IRAS ID
255833
Contact name
Carsten Timmermann
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 2 months, 31 days
Research summary
Childbirth is not an easy prospect, and most British women find that antenatal education does not provide the preparation they need. This qualitative, interpretive study seeks to understand new mothers’ experiences of collective childbirth knowledge, with a particular focus on birth stories and group-led practices.
Drawing on initial research and epistemological theory, Knowing Childbirth seeks to understand how women use collective practices to co-produce birth knowledge. Secondary questions include: How do women engage with group-led antenatal sessions? How do women engage with birth stories while preparing for childbirth? How do women evaluate the relevance and impact of collective sources of birth knowledge?
The researcher will seek to answer these questions using multiple methods for gathering data. Archival research in the NCT archive at the Wellcome Library, alongside other primary and secondary sources, will offer an historical perspective on collective practices. Participant observation, with associated questionnaires to monitor demographic data, will provide an insight into how childbirth knowledge is deployed in formal groups. The researcher will observe three types of antenatal sessions: standard NHS Active Birth classes, NHS Homebirth classes and community-based group-led antenatal sessions. Focus groups of postnatal mothers drawn from the various sessions, with associated questionnaires to collect demographic data, will demonstrate how women evaluate the role and impact of collective practices, birth stories and other sources of childbirth knowledge. Finally, by interviewing midwives and childbirth educators, the researcher will incorporate a professional perspective.
The researcher will carry out the project part-time in pursuit of a doctoral degree, to be finalised by March 2024. She will base her research in the Manchester area, with specific connections to St. Mary’s Hospital Oxford Road, part of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
Research Summary
Childbirth is not an easy prospect, and many British women find that antenatal education does not provide the preparation they need. This qualitative, ethnographic study explores birthing people’s experiences of collective childbirth knowledge, with a focus on birth stories and group-led antenatal sessions.In conversation with initial research and epistemological theory, Knowing Childbirth aims to understand how birthing people collectively produce birth knowledge. Research objectives include investigating how people utilise storytelling, group-led antenatal sessions and other collective practices, as well as the impact of these knowledges. This study also seeks to build an open, diverse discourse on birth with women as active agents, and like all feminist research, to reduce suffering and improve people’s lives.
To meet the aims and objectives, I relied mainly on participant observation at antenatal sessions, with additional data from interviews with session leaders. I observed NHS teacher-led (standard Active Birth and Homebirth) classes and community-based group-led (Positive Birth Movement and Homebirth) sessions. I also incorporated observational research at National Childbirth Trust classes and Homebirth groups from the pilot study. I analysed data using a novel application of template analysis, framed by feminist technoscience, ethnography and socio-narratology.
Session transcripts demonstrated some ways in which people engaged with stories, group-led sessions, other collective practices (e.g., intuition, comparing, humour, silencing) and birth knowledges in general. Interviews with midwife-teachers and group facilitators added contextual information and practice-based perspectives.
Group-led sessions enabled women to represent a wider variation of experiences of control and trust. While different stories did different work, storytelling often foregrounded complex subjectivities that challenged dualistic mainstream birth narratives and individualism. Overall, collective practices produced more care-ful knowledges through material tinkering, attending to emotions, working athwart norms and creating protective/suppressive absences. The various birth knowledge practices enacted multiple effects, including increased dis/trust, compliance and disrupted norms, with in-depth storytelling as one of the most positive and powerful practices.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/NW/0014
Date of REC Opinion
19 Feb 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion