Journal
HEALTH COMMUNICATION
Volume 32, Issue 12, Pages 1510-1519Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2016.1234537
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Women & Giving Program at the South Dakota State University Foundation
- Rural Health Research Center at South Dakota State University
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Doulasor designated women experienced in childbirth who provide support to a birthing motherhave been shown to improve mothers' medical outcomes, but they are relatively underused in U.S. births. We assert that doulas are rarely used, in part, because it is difficult to situate them within the contemporary U.S. master birth narrative that places family and medical staff as expected characters in the birth story. This qualitative study uses narrative theorizing to describe the communicatively situated position of doulas in light of the dominant U.S. master birth narrative. Through an analysis of interviews and focus groups with mothers, expectant parents, doulas, and medical staff (n=52) at a community hospital, we explain how individuals communicatively located the doula as a character who occupied a liminal space that is (a) between borders, (b) crossing borders, and (c) outside borders. Although doulas' liminal location enables individuals to creatively explain and promote doulas to important publics, doulas' conceptual ambiguity in the birth narrative can also be constraining. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available