Midwives, medicine and natural births: female agency in Scandinavian birthing shows
Midwives, medicine and natural births: female agency in Scandinavian birthing shows
This article examines how the often juxtaposed concepts ‘natural birth’ and ‘medically assisted birth’ figure in Jordemødrene, Barnmorskorna and En unge i minuten: three Scandinavian documentary programmes depicting midwifery and childbirth. Through comparisons between US and UK birthing shows, the study considers the socio-historically specific construction of birthing practices and the figure of the midwife. Non-invasive approaches to labour are celebrated as symbols of an essential ‘women’s culture’ that asserts female agency, but medical technology and pain medication also figure as potential tools for female empowerment, thus rendering the midwife a malleable figurehead for multiple strands of feminism.
177-189
Bull, Sofia
67e74291-8c1f-409e-8c84-0416544992b7
1 July 2016
Bull, Sofia
67e74291-8c1f-409e-8c84-0416544992b7
Bull, Sofia
(2016)
Midwives, medicine and natural births: female agency in Scandinavian birthing shows.
Critical Studies in Television, 11 (2), .
(doi:10.1177/1749602016642934).
Abstract
This article examines how the often juxtaposed concepts ‘natural birth’ and ‘medically assisted birth’ figure in Jordemødrene, Barnmorskorna and En unge i minuten: three Scandinavian documentary programmes depicting midwifery and childbirth. Through comparisons between US and UK birthing shows, the study considers the socio-historically specific construction of birthing practices and the figure of the midwife. Non-invasive approaches to labour are celebrated as symbols of an essential ‘women’s culture’ that asserts female agency, but medical technology and pain medication also figure as potential tools for female empowerment, thus rendering the midwife a malleable figurehead for multiple strands of feminism.
Text
CST_Midwives.pdf
- Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: March 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 22 April 2016
Published date: 1 July 2016
Organisations:
Film
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 385596
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/385596
ISSN: 1749-6020
PURE UUID: c693a399-8d11-47a5-b41f-bcdaad494f73
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Date deposited: 02 Mar 2016 14:22
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 22:20
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