Obstetrical Trajectories. On training women/bodies for (home)birth.

Abstract

The Dutch obstetrical system rests on the assumption that pregnancy and birth are normal life-events. Because Dutch obstetrics assumes that pregnancy and birth are considered normal until there is evidence of the contrary, midwives, as well as gynecologists, practice an appropriate kind of ‘expectant' care: one tries to interfere/intervene in the birth process as little as possible, and midwives try to keep women out of the second line as long as possible. But it must also be noted that many more ‘low risk' women are choosing for a hospital delivery with their midwife for reasons of comfort, safety, or because many of their peers have done the same .In this chapter we examine why it is that women plan to deliver in hospital, and why they are increasingly referred to specialist care during labor. Our hypothesis is that a marked rupture tends to occur in the obstetrical trajectory designed for women, and that this rupture inscribes itself in the ways women (and midwives) (fail to) trust the working of an unassisted body during labor