Childbirth: Patriarchal and maternal influences

Abstract

Contrary to recent feminist and psychoanalytic focus on the place of mothers and midwives in determining women's psychological induction into mothering, it is argued, on the basis of interviews conducted with 22 women shortly after the hospital-based delivery of their first babies, that childbirth experience is determined as much by women's sense of affirmation by their fathers and obstetricians as by a sense of closeness to their mothers and midwives. The need for further research, using an approach more open to quantitative and statistical analysis, is indicated given this study's practical implications regarding the importance of delegating patriarchal authority and decision-making within the maternity hospital in the interests of enhancing women's psychological well-being in childbirth.