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.
