Childbirth and Birth Care

Pregnancy and birth are physical, biological processes taking place in individual human bodies, but the lived experience of pregnancy and birth is co-constituted by the historical, social, political, and economic context. Birth care is similarly context dependent, despite calls for “evidence-based” medicine. Care is inevitably infused with societal discourses, ideologies, and local logics rather than purely based on neutral and universal science. These social discourses and practices contribute to inequalities and inequities in people’s reproductive possibilities and care experiences. Moreover, birth care is at times experienced as violent, especially by members of marginalized communities. In order to understand and improve lived experiences of childbirth and birth care, we must go beyond the objectifying “medical gaze” and apply social science lenses to broaden and deepen an understanding. To this effect, this chapter will provide an overview of selected anthropological, sociological, and science and technology studies literature on birth and maternity care. It will provide examples of qualitative and ethnographic studies maternity care to illustrate how social science concepts (e.g., reproductive governance, logic of care, and social capital) and social science methodologies like (hospital) ethnography can illuminate childbirth and birth care as both political and situated, social practices, enmeshed with the reproduction of inequities. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of how the social sciences can help improve birth care experiences and address inequities, and identify the field’s strengths, blind spots, and opportunities for growth.