Making choices about childbirth: a study of twenty women's birth preparations and experiences in Calgary, Alberta

Abstract

This thesis presents and explores the paths followed by twenty women in Calgary, Alberta as they approached and ultimately passed through the experience of childbirth, all but one of them for the first time. Twelve of the women in the study chose a 'standard' or 'conventional' path that led to birth in the hospital with a physician; eight women chose paths leading to 'alternative births' in different places or with different care providers. By analysing information collected through interviews, participation in prenatal classes and in the literature of childbirth, this study provides insight into the birth-related choices available to parents in Calgary. The focus of my research is to understand how pregnancy and birth were shaped for these women by looking at the choices they made preceding and during childbirth, and exploring how those choices were influenced by the cultural, social, historical, political and economic contexts in which they occurred.