This thesis investigated online communication of women utilizing a homebirth forum in order to understand why Canadian women are choosing homebirth methods instead of the mainstream dominant trend of hospital births, and how a sense of community is created through an online forum. For this research fifty posts were selected from fifteen different threads within the homebirth forum group on BabyCenter. The homebirth forum group was followed for approximately one month, and a total of thirty-four women are represented in the posting sample analyzed. Using content analysis techniques, four recurring themes were extracted – Control, Home, Hospitals, and Community – with at least four sub-themes for each identified. It was found that women choose homebirth for a myriad of factors but predominantly because homebirth allows for the ability to have a better sense of control, choice, and comfort over their birthing desires. As well, a sense of community is created in an online capacity because of the commonality of interests between the forum users. The solidarity of the homebirth community is built upon advice, empathy and situational understanding.

Unassisted childbirth--giving birth at home without a midwife or physician present--emerged as a movement in mid-20th century North America. While only a small number of women choose to give birth unassisted, its significance extends far beyond its numbers. Unassisted birth illuminates trends in maternity care practices that drive, and sometimes force, women to choose unassisted birth. It also is part of a larger set of connected values and lifestyle choices, including home schooling, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, ecological awareness, cloth diapering, sustainable living, and alternative medicine. Finally, the emergence of UC as a conscious birth choice requires a re-examination of how we understand, frame, and interpret childbirth paradigms. There is very little written about unassisted birth in the academic world, although media reports on the practice have become increasingly prevalent since 2007. This dissertation begins the conversation for a scholarly inquiry into unassisted birth. My research is based primarily on interviews, essay-response surveys, and archives of internet discussion groups. After setting unassisted birth in historical context, I explain why women make this choice; the knowledge sources they privilege; how they understand the concepts of safety, risk, and responsibility, and their complex and sometimes contradictory relationship with midwifery. I also examine midwifery, and to a smaller degree, obstetrical, perspectives on unassisted birth, focusing on how birth attendants who are sympathetic to UC reconcile that with their training and experience attending births. Unassisted birth has changed the core questions we need to ask about birth. Instead of home or hospital?, natural or epidural?, or midwife or obstetrician?, questions asked by existing models of childbirth, unassisted birth poses a different set of core questions: Is birth disturbed or undisturbed? Is it social or intimate? managed or intuitive? attended or unattended?

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This thesis illuminates the experiences, motives, and framing process of a cohort of homebirthing women in Tucson, Arizona who embody the collective action frames of the national homebirth movement. A model of birth frame construction, alignment and adoption is presented that expands current theory on social movement framing processes, cognitive liberation, and life politics in health and self-help related movements. The study explores the evolution of homebirth midwifery nationally and locally. It articulates the main collective action frames that argue against standard maternity care and presents the alternatives proffered by the homebirth movement. It presents micro-level experiences of movement pioneers, macro-articulations of movement leaders, respondent's micro-level birth model framing processes; and how "life politics" have changed birth culture in America. Written materials augmented data obtained from in-depth interviews with (n=38) respondents who homebirthed in Tucson between 1970 and 2000. Content analysis was utilized and grounded theory was employed.

Den absoluta merparten av alla barn föds på sjukhus i Sverige och har så gjorts sedan början av förra seklet.Mödradödligheten sjönk stadigt alltjämt som förlossningsenheterna centraliserades runt om i landet. Till slut var hemförlossningar snarare något avvikande och sjukhusförlossningen något alldeles självklart. I nutid råder enighet att kvinnan skall kunna göra ett informerat val om förlossningsplats, vilket i enlighet med befintlig forskning förespråkas av World Health Organization [WHO]. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkade kvinnor att ta beslutet att genomföra en hemförlossning i ett höginkomstland. Metoden som användes är en allmän litteraturöversikt där data från 15 vetenskapliga originalartiklar analyserats. En integrerad litteraturöversikt genomfördes vilken resulterade i två kategorier: ”Vad kvinnan vill ha” med fyra underkategorier och ”Vad vården erbjuder” med tre underkategorier. I kategorin ”Vad kvinnan vill ha” var huvudfyndet kvinnors önskan om en fysiologiskt naturlig förlossning på sina egna villkor, utan att bli störd. I detta önskade kvinnorna känna sig trygga, sedda och i centrum för sin egen förlossning. Egenkontroll och självbestämmande var essentiellt. Under ”Vad vården erbjuder” var huvudfyndet att kvinnornas tidigare obehagliga eller traumatiska upplevelser av vårdpersonal inverkade på beslutet. Vårdgivares bemötande och attityd kunde driva kvinnan längre ifrån den traditionella vården vilket hade inflytande på kvinnans val att föda i hemmet. Slutsatsen av uppsatsen är att kvinnors individuella önskan om att få en säker och god förlossningsupplevelse i hemmet, tillsammans med förtroendet för vården, är något som borde vara en stor prioritet för vårdpersonal och samhället i stort.

This thesis deals with framing of homebirths in the Czech Republic. It is focused on the interpretation of homebirths in the Czech mass and alternative media. The goal of this paper is find out what kind of discourse dominate about homebirths in public discussion, against which attitude to childbirth it is in conflict and if this interpretation correspond with "real" practise of homebirths. I used discourse analysis for uncover discourses in Czech media and the in-depth interview with mothers for detecting the process, risks and experience of homebirth (was compared with the experience of childbirths in hospital). The secondary goal of the thesis is to discover how much are reflected the people involved in this issue. Theoretically, the paper is based on framing theory and the concept of human rights. The sources of analysis are composed of the Czech media articles (2014-2017) and the statements of mothers interviewed.

Pregnancy and birth are not only physiological processes but also socially and culturally organized events. Pregnancy is an individual experience as well as the focus of collective concerns and values. In this dissertation the pregnant body is understood as an arena of social truths and contesting perspectives: a public stage where different perspectives on medical technology, risk and gender are acted out. Swedish maternity care dominates the arena, and women have to adjust to the authority of medical knowledge. This, however, does not mean that women comply without questions. As the study shows they struggle for voice and agency which is reflected in pregnant women’s differing views and uses of biomedical knowledge and technology. Although the discourse on pregnancy and birth is highly ideological and marked by strong opinions, pregnant women in practice tend to be motivated by pragmatics rather than ideology. In order to understand the complexities and nuances of reproductive culture in Sweden, we need to move beyond distinctions such as the one between technology and the body, and instead focus on the experiential world of pregnant women in which technology is an integral part in everyday life and therefore taken for granted rather than problematised. The thesis is based on fieldwork at a maternity care center and interviews with pregnant women. Furthermore, discussion groups on the Internet and debates in mass media have been valuable sources of information. / Avhandlingen finns att köpa som tryckt bok för 120 SEK exkl. frakt. Maila birgitta.hellmark@comhem.se

Nowadays, women have a wide range of sources of information about childbirth. Women's attitudes toward childbirth are made by sharing experiences between women and in families but also they are based on information from media and internet. Consequently attitudes toward childbirth influence the choice of kind of delivery and women's childbirth experience. These days we can see some trends in obstetrics - the rising interest in natural births, on the one hand, and the rising number of women delivering their babies by cesarean section on the other hand. The goal of this socio-psychologically oriented thesis is to map women's attitudes to these most striking birth trends, and also to identify the reasons for these women's attitudes. The research part is thus focused qualitatively and uses the data from the analysis of the internet discussion forums for mothers. In the previous theoretical part are presented the key information necessary to understand the studied topic, such as the issues of attitudes, the specifics of the communication on the internet discussion forums and above all the current scientific knowledge about the attitudes of women to childbirth in the Czech Republic and the world. Key words Attitudes of women, natural childbirth, assisted childbirth, homebirth, caesarean section, internet...

Nowadays, women have a wide range of sources of information about childbirth. Women's attitudes toward childbirth are made by sharing experiences between women and in families but also they are based on informations from media and internet. Consequently attitudes toward childbirth influence the choice of kind of delivery and women's childbirth experience. These days we can see some trends in obstetrics - the rising interest in natural births, on the one hand, and the rising number of women delivering their babies by cesarean section on the other hand. The goal of this socio-psychologically oriented thesis is to map women's attitudes to these most striking birth trends, and also to identify the reasons for these women's attitudes. The research part is thus focused qualitatively and uses the data from the analysis of the internet discussion forums for mothers. In the previous theoretical part are presented the key information necessary to understand the studied topic, such as the issues of attitudes, the specifics of the communication on the internet discussion forums and above all the current scientific knowledge about the attitudes of women to childbirth in the Czech Republic and the world. Key words Attitudes of women, natural childbirth, assisted childbirth, homebirth, caesarean section, internet...

The thesis focuses on the analysis of a dispute regarding home birth and discourses associated with it. The thesis focuses on the analysis of a dispute regarding home birth and discourses associated with it. The thesis focuses on the analysis of a dispute regarding home birth and discourses associated with it. Choice of location and proces sof giving birth in czech environment remains very limited and domestic deliveries are subject of controversy among professional medical community and state institutions on the one hand and midwives, civil movements and comitted mothers on the other hand. Theme divides laical and expert public. It's established through discourses, reflect the views and opinions of the two quarreled groups - supporters of medically controlled childbirth and supporters of natural birth. In the context of media reporting can be identified two main streams of discursive formations, scattering of concepts, thematic choices, objels and modalities of coming to the statement - medical discourse and natural discourse. The controversy both discourses in the Czech media escalated with court case with midwife Ivana Königsmarková, who in 2009 assisted at home birth that ended tragically - serious damage and subsequent death of a child. Just on the case of Ivana Königsmarková and its...