Freebirthing in the United Kingdom: The Voice Centered Relational Method and the (de)Construction of the I-Poem

Gemma Mckenzie

doi:10.1177/1609406921993285

Abstract

Freebirth occurs when women intentionally give birth to their baby without midwives or doctors present in countries and eras in which there are maternity services available to assist them. This paper forms part of a wider project on women’s freebirthing experiences in the United Kingdom. Verbatim transcripts created from face-to-face narrative interviews with 16 freebirthing women were analyzed using the Voice Centered Relational Method (VCRM). VCRM is a feminist methodology that consists of four readings of an interview transcript: reading for the plot and the researcher’s response to it; reading for the I; reading for relationships; and placing people within cultural and social contexts. This paper focuses on the second reading and in particular the creation of I-poems from the data, which require the researcher to focus on sentences made by the interviewee that include the word “I,” and without changing the order of those sentences, to present them in poetic stanzas. While there is literature on this form of data presentation, there is a paucity of information on how to evolve the data from transcript to I-poem and the alternative ways researchers can construct I-poetry. The aims of this paper are to demonstrate the theoretical background to I-poems, the variations in their form, explain the steps taken to create I-poems from interview transcripts from freebirthing women and to highlight poetry as a novel way of disseminating research results beyond an academic audience.

Highlights

Women were asked to talk about their freebirth journey through four stages: relevant experiences prior to their freebirth pregnancy, their freebirth pregnancy, their freebirth and their post-natal experiences
There have been many studies and publications on the subject, the lack of in-depth discussion on the creation of I-poems means that the methodology has evolved in several directions
This paper has highlighted the various approaches researchers have taken and outlined the benefits and problems inherent in creating I-poems that are either “sparse” or “full.” Further, examples provided of she- and we- poems demonstrate opportunities for social scientists to develop the concept further and to explore alternative ways of analyzing and presenting data

Summary

Introduction

This project explored the experiences of women who had freebirthed their babies in the UK. Women were asked to talk about their freebirth journey through four stages: relevant experiences prior to their freebirth pregnancy (including any previous maternity experiences), their freebirth pregnancy, their freebirth (i.e. the act of giving birth without HCPs) and their post-natal experiences. All interviews were transcribed verbatim, anonymized and interviewees’ names replaced by pseudonyms in order to protect participants’ identities

Objectives

Conclusion