Description
Book SynopsisExplores how women who give birth at home use religion to make sense of their births. This book investigates why women whose religious affiliations range from Old Order Amish to Reform Judaism defy the medical establishment, and sometimes the law to have their babies at home. It challenges both feminist and traditionalist accounts of childbearing.
Trade Review"Considering home birth from a wide variety of perspectives--sociological, political, ethical, medical, psychological, and spiritual--Klassen finds that the pain of childbirth and home birth itself often has a profound impact on the women who choose it."--Library Journal "In this provocative and engagingly written ethnography, Klassen offers an important complement to other social studies on childbirth in America."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Blessed Events will appeal most to those in the alternative birth movement, but will be of interest to anyone committed to exploring female embodied experience, as well as those interested in relations between religion and spirituality."--Amy Mullin, Journal of the Association for Research in Mothering
Table of ContentsPreface: Motherhood Issues xi 1. Procreation Stories: An Introduction 1 2. Cultural Contexts of Home Birth 16 3. Risk, Fear, and the Ethics of Home Birth 38 4. Procreating Religion: Spirituality, Religion, and the Transformations of Birth 63 5. A Sense of Place: Meanings of Home 97 6. Natural Women: Bodies and the Work of Birth 135 7. Sliding between Pain and Pleasure: Home Birth and Visionary Pain 176 Epilogue: The Miracle of Birth 213 Appendix A: Interview Guide 221 Appendix B: The Women in the Study 224 Notes 231 Bibliography 285 Index 309
