Abstract
Abstract: The systems governing childbirth in the United States have evolved over centuries, shaped by institutional medicine, religion, politics, and prevailing social norms surrounding morality and womanhood. This has led to the widespread portrayal of birth as a medical emergency marked by suffering. In contrast, the modern home birth movement offers alternative narratives that challenge these dominant views. This article explores how the personal birth stories of sixteen women, particularly those who have experienced home births, challenge prevailing paradigms and provide a different perspective. An experience-centered approach reveals the significance of the experience of descent—a physiological process in birth that guides women through a transformative liminal state and simultaneously grounds them in their bodies while transcending ordinary experience. These narratives of descent question deeply ingrained assumptions about Cartesian dualism and the linear progression of traditional rites of passage. Historically, such narratives have been systematically suppressed, with institutional medicine continuing to obscure and deny the existence of embodied knowledge. In this context, sharing birth stories that defy hegemonic norms becomes an act of resistance, through which women share embodied knowledge and empower others in navigating their own birth experiences.
Published Version
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