Redefining the Obstetrics in the Parental Internet-Discussions (on Example of Tomsk Forum)

Abstract

Social transformation in Russia, including the growing commercialisation of medicine, has led to a noticeable tendencies towards individualisation and the involvement of the family in childbirth since the early 2000s. Parents now take part in online discussion to gain and swap information about the childbirth process, which has resulted in conflict between medical definitions of birth and the attempts of parents to question such definitions. This article presents the results of an analysis of 421 discussions of birth by women participating in local online parent communities in Tomsk and Severska, published online between 2008 and 2010. Forum discussions are shown to centre around some key controversies arising between parents and medical personnel around defining the meaning of birth. Drawing on the theories of Michel Foucault (1998; 2002) and Kathy Davis (1997), the author analyses the main aspects of obstetrics as it is being redefined by parents (i.e. viewed from positions which can be defined as alternatives to the norm). Birth is one of the most important points of contention in defining norms relating to a woman’s body, the birth space, technical characteristics, and medical norms.

Issues discussed include the redefinition of childbirth; alternatives spaces for giving birth in; medical norms; body and behaviour during childbirth; and the problematisation of childbirth in relation to power and authority. The article concludes that maternity care is a subject of discursive contention in online communities, and that the main struggle lies in defining aspects of medical intervention and social practices. Parents end up having to choose between normative and alternative meanings of childbirth, and in the course of this they strive to make childbirth a matter of personal choice and self-expression. However, these discussions also raise questions of authority and power during childbirth. The desires of parents to have a say in definitions of birth requires and assumes an internalization of specific norms of maternity care, and also the rejection of external discipline (as enforced by medical experts) in favour of self-discipline.