The relationality of maternity care: A diffractive analysis of maternity care experiences

Ella Kurz, Deborah Davis, Jenny Browne

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

PROBLEM: Pervasive polemics of differing approaches to and values of maternity care limit possibilities of nuanced and productive understandings of how maternity care is experienced.

AIM: To explore how maternity care identities (midwife, obstetrician, childbearing woman) are shaped by binarised conceptualisations of childbirth.

METHODS: The diffractive analysis of data gathered in collective biography research groups.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION: Maternity care identities are not complete, pre-established entities, but rather are, 'in the making', remade in every maternity care encounter.

CONCLUSION: Maternity care identities are defined by their encounters with other maternity care identities, and therefore, each maternity care identity plays a role in which experiences of maternity care come into being.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)96-103
Number of pages8
JournalWomen and Birth
Volume35
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2022

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