But Isn't It the Baby that Decides When It Will Be Born?' Temporality and Women's Embodied Experiences of Giving Birth

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4380197
AutoresJoanna White (0000-0003-1335-3756, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen34
Número1
Fecha de publicación2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Cambridge Journal of Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0305-7674 • E-ISSN: 2047-7716
EditorialBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/ca.2016.340108
OpenAlexW2230531707
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas20

Drawing on primary ethnographic research, this paper explores the intermeshing of different forms of time in contemporary childbirth, including the ways in which pregnant women are embedded within, informed by, and resist institutional categorizations of reproductive time. While each parturient who participated in my study described their own, unique relationships with birthing and time, all women employed clock-time to anchor critical phases of their labour. My analysis leads me to propose the concept of `phenomenological time ́ as a means of capturing the embodied outcome of the complex, entwined relationships amongst the social and institutional time which each woman inhabits, her own individual, underlying physiology, and her ongoing psycho-social response throughout the birthing experience. My analysis suggests that further phenomenological studies of birth could lead to a more sophisticated understanding of the relationships between human beings and time including, alternative temporal forms such a multitemporality and `reverse progression ́ during labour

Biology · Childbirth · Developmental psychology · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Ethnography · Pregnancy · Sociology · Temporalities · Temporality · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions · Philosophy · Psychology