“A familiar, not fearful place”: sensory histories of hospital birth in twentieth-century North America

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ABSTRACT This paper unpacks sensory histories of childbirth in the North American obstetric ward, focusing on the period between 1950 and 1970. Focusing on the intertwining of spaces, bodies, and behaviors, this paper argues that control and mastery of the childbirth experience – including control of pain, key to the “achievement” of a successful natural birth – was seen to be inextricably rooted in familiarity with the hospital environment, the maternity ward, and delivery room. This familiarity, carefully developed during antenatal training, was a necessary precondition for the maintenance of true relaxation throughout the birth experience, a state which demanded the continued management of a range of sensory stimuli, and the strategic use of touch, “whispered encouragements” from the father-to-be, and measured instruction from the (often male) physician to guide the expectant mother through the interpretation of her own sensory experiences and the various stages of labor and delivery.