I haven't written much since I've been back to school, mostly because I have plenty of writing to do elsewhere, but also because my mind is all filled up with thoughts about rhetoric, writing, teaching, and the like. Today, I was doing some thinking about a new research project I am contemplating, and it occurred to me, "Why not do some of my thinking out loud on my blog?" So here goes.
I am interested in birth stories (as well as birth preparation manuals, but that will have to wait). Right now, I am just beginning to form some questions about them. I've done a little research, and there is very little academic work done on birth stories. What there is, I don't have access to, but I'm getting it.
Why do women tell birth stories? They certainly do it a lot, as any baby shower or mom's night out participant can tell you. It's amazing how much women talk about this. Who else tells personal narratives with this kind of fervor? Soldiers telling war stories? Religious testimony?
Why do some women choose to write these stories down? What is different about writing the story and telling it? Why do some women make these stories public on the internet? Who is actually reading these stories? Other moms, pregnant women? Who is the audience that these women are writing for?
Are there archives of birth stories I can find and use? Do I want to look only at written birth stories or include oral storytelling as well? Can I find birth stories by men? What are they like? Birth stories by birth attendants? Birth stories by family members or friends?
What will I find in these stories? Some things to look for:
1. agency - Who is in control in the stories? Do birth attendants appear as the subject of the sentence more often or less often than the mothers? Look for explicit references to choices, to deliberation, to the process by which decisions are made (both before the birth and in emergency situations). Are the stories themselves an act of control?
2. language about the body - How do women talk about their bodies? Will I find everyday or technical body descriptions? How do birth attendants in the stories talk about or treat women's bodies?
3. isolation - How isolated is the mother in the story? Birth stories strike me as a way of making our inner lives open to the outside during a very important life event. Is this correct? Are the stories showing women who are alone in their heads? Or are the women connected, during the birth, to the people around them? Are the birth stories themselves an attempt at connection?
4. community - How do the writers of the stories talk about other women, their partners and families, their birth attendants, their babies? Are these birth stories communal stories or very individual stories?
I'd love to hear any feedback you have about these questions, or anything else about birth stories that you find interesting. Also, if you have a birth story that you would like to be included in my research, email it to me at kellyelmore79 at gmail.com.
5 comments:
Interesting project! I've been feeling lately like I want to write down my birth stories, because even after all this time, I've never written down how I felt about it. I've written about the c-sections and the circumstances of Ryan's birth a bit, but that doesn't really feel like a real birth story to me.
And why? Because there's much I've left out in telling the STORY of their births. And I know I've told the stories to lots of people, including them, but I'm feeling like I want to write them. Only, is it kind of lame to write about 3, 6, and 9 years later? Maybe, but I'll do it anyway soon I think.
I don't think it's lame. I think it will be interesting to see what your experience of writing the stories will be this far away from them.
Do you know why you want to write the story down? Why is telling it not enough?
You know where to find my story. You may use it as you wish. Also, consider the TV shows A Baby Story and Birth Day, both on TLC, I think. These are just televised birth stories. I watched them while pregnant for the same reasons that I've read birth stories. The women who participate in those shows probably have similar reasons for doing so as those of us who write our stories.
Kelly,
Fascinating topic - one close to my own heart. You are certainly welcome to use both of my birth stories. In addition, I find it interesting how few people tell birth loss stories or write them down - at least IME. I myself have not put mine online. Mine is actually includes a collection of emails between me and you as I processed my first miscarriage. It was very helpful for me to have ways of mourning my losses including writing and telling the stories, but I shared them with a very limited audience.
Jenn,
I don't think it's at all strange to want to write down your birth stories now. I wonder if women's tellings of their stories differ as time passes. I wonder if you might have more insight into things now that you know who your kids are becoming.
Amy,
I am not a fan of those shows as I think they further sensationalize a beautiful process. I actually had to stop watching them because of the way they made me worry as a pregnant mama. I think personal accounts are very different from film edited by strangers with a need to keep their show popular and exciting.
Oh, I completely disagree about the TV shows. I found the two that I mentioned to be uplifting and I was quite often moved to tears watching the births. There are other shows that seem to focus on the problems that can occur - I avoided those like the plague. Birth Day did that in some episodes, but not all.
I think watching those shows helped to demystify childbirth for me more than anything else, and that was a very good thing. I wonder if telling and reading birth stories is an attempt at just that - demystification. Kelly, are you going to investigate how the telling of birth stories has changed through the ages? I wonder if the need for stories is greater during times when childbirth is kept more under the covers, so to speak. But I suppose that goes to why people read/listen to them, not why people tell them.
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