Striking gorilla hormones, compelling circles and awesome plastic bag tricks: experiences of attending the Midatlantic conference on birth and primal health research, Gran Canaria, 26-28 February 2010

摘要

The objective of this conference was 'to phrase new questions at a time when striking technical and scientific advances are speeding up the history of childbirth'. Primal health research is seen as a developing branch of epidemiology that brings together occurrences in fetal life, the perinatal period, the year following birth and the state of health and mental welfare in later life. Sheila Kitzinger opened the conference affirming that women must question medical authority, reclaim their bodies and take childbirth back. Sheila set the ethos for the conference where she encouraged midwives and mothers to act together to challenge the current systems. Women who refuse to be treated as products on a conveyer belt would thereby grow in confidence to make informed choices and enter motherhood empowered and enjoying the transition, instead of remembering childbirth as a form of abuse akin to rape.