Efforts of feminist activists significantly changed women's birth experience in the US. Movement-inspired child birth reform gave women greater agency and control over the birth experience and expanded access to health care in communities in need. Initiated at the grassroots by women in communities nationwide, alternative birthing centers offered an alternative to the doctor-controlled, hospital birth experience that was prevalent. With their commitment to changing attitudes toward birth, women's health advocates challenged the expectation that women should labor under the direction of doctors in large impersonal institutions, in isolation from other women and the support of their families and friends. Responding to unmet health care needs in their communities, feminist activists from diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds introduced the revolutionary ideas that prenatal and well-woman care should be provided in ways that are responsive to the circumstances of women's lives, that women should receive health care and give birth in welcoming, attractive and comfortable places and that a woman could take control of her own labor. Though many women's birth experiences continue to be over-medicalized, there are options today including midwife-attended births, natural child birth, birthing centers, the presence of partners, family and friends at the birth, and other choices that help women design a birth experience that meets their needs. This presentation will review the history of child birth reform in the 1970s; address the philosophical and the clinical changes that feminist activists effected; and outline the legacies of this work in the child birth experiences of U.S. women today.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, the participant will be able to: 1. describe the history of child birth reform in the 1970s 2. discuss the legacies of this work evident in the child birth experiences of women today
Keywords: History, Pregnancy
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.