Abstract
Fersterer, T. (1993). Empowerment in childbirth - womem's home and hospital birth
experiences. Unpublished Master of Social Science Thesis. Hamilton: University of Waikato.
Over the last seventy years, childbirth in New Zeland has moved away from the home and has become a clinical, hospital procedure. The medicalisation of birth, with its reliance on specialist doctors and technological intervention, has dramatically changed the experience of birth for women and their babies. Central to the changes has been women's loss of control over their own experience.
While a small number of women choose to give birth naturally in their own homes, more than 98 percent of New Zealand women choose a medical experience in the hospital. Research showing the overuse of drugs and interventions in hospital births, as well as the negative effects of medical procedures, indicates that justification for this almost universal use of hospitals for childbirth in New Zealand needs to be challenged.
The purpose of this research was to find out why some women continue to give up their control to the medical profession by having their babies in hospital, while others decide instead to take back the power by choosing to have home births. In-depth interviews with 14 women, seven who had recently planned a hospital birth, and seven who had recently planned a hospital birth, documented their experiences.
The findings showed that fundamental differences in the women's views about autonomy and control influenced their empowerment in childbirth. Women who chose home births strongly asserted their decision-making control. They believed it was the woman's right, not the doctor's, to make decisions concerning her birth and her body. They made birth plans to protect their autonomy from a takeover by the medical profession. With support from other women, they all maintained control in their home births. In contrast, all of the hospital birth women were prepared to hand over control to the medical "expert", and consequently were more vulnerable to losing control. Most (four) of the women had negative birth experiences in which they lost control, and paradoxically their loss of control led them to further dependence on medicalised birth. Their experiences is indicative of learned helplessness rather than empowerment.
This research contributes to an understanding of women's empowerment in childbirth. An interesting finding was that, for the hospital birth women who are typically disempowered, it was positive experiences in which they maintained control of their births, that led them to expect to take control in future births. This finding differs from previous empowerment research which shows that negative experiences of loss of control often incite people to take control (Lord and McKillop Farlow, 1990). |
Community Psychology