Reframing the Birth Movement: The Effects of Consumerization and Exclusion

• In Event: 2184 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Reproductive Health and Decision-making

Abstract

The Birth Movement has recently embraced the consumerization of medical care that has been ongoing for the last few decades. This is in part a response to the heightened rates of Cesarean Section and other surgical interventions associated with hospital protocols and training policies for doctors. These interventions are thought to be linked with higher rates of mortality and morbidity for both the mother and child (Morris 2013; Rothman 2016). While the movement has pushed institutions to improve their practices and reduce these interventions, change has been slow to come. As a response, the Birth Movement has begun educating women on the interventions that doctors may try to perform on women, why such interventions are unnecessary, and the “correct” way to give birth (Gabriel 2017). By reframing the movement to focus on individual actions, the birth movement inadvertently segregates births into “correct” and “incorrect” categories. This paper demonstrates that such stratification excludes many women and negatively harms those excluded. This paper ends with policy recommendations on how to reduce intervention rates while reframing the movement to be inclusive of all women.

Author

• Alec Cali, State University of New York-Stony Brook