Birth in Power, Case study of homebirth in France and its link to sustainability

Sammanfattning: If homebirth can offer better outcomes than hospital-birth why do so few French women make this choice? The literature review on birth in France shows an increasing critique of overmedicalization. Through an Ecofeminist approach, conducting a qualitative questionnaire and interviews I found women choosing homebirth seek intimacy, respect and to avoid fear-based protocols and hospitals' violence. Women who experienced homebirth tend to embrace 'nature' and their animality, not seeing it as oppressing but empowering. Homebirth and my respondents lie within Ecofeminism and its notion of reclaiming. Reclaiming one's body, one's sovereignty, one's animality. Homebirth can be seen as both a consequence and source of questioning Western modern ways resulting in a turn to more sustainable practices, relevant to sustainability science. Interviewees linked homebirth to sustainability, believing that changing how babies are born is one step towards changing the world by caring for more empathetic humans who will care for the Earth.