In June 2021 I wrote an article entitled ‘Listening to the Pregnant Body’ for the AIMS Journal (Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services).
The article explores how our experience of pregnancy, giving birth and emerging into the postpartum time is defined by the culture we grow up in, shaped by biological imperatives. This article looks at how difficult it has become to listen to the body within the culture of the medicalised model of care in pregnancy and birth, while affirming and expanding on the vital role of embodiment and the language of the mammalian body during these times.
‘Our notion of health is shaped by the language we speak, the words we use to talk about the body, in addition to the cultural lenses through which we come to exist within our bodies. Language and culture greatly influence the way in which we experience menarche, the menstrual cycle, sensuality, sexuality, conception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and menopause. Culture affects whether these phases and experiences of life are pathologized, considered burdens or celebrated as expressive of our aliveness as rites of passage. The cultural stories passed on to us shape the way in which we inhabit our bodies and relate to pathogenic or salutogenic care.’
THE FULL ARTICLE IS HERE:
https://www.aims.org.uk/journal/item/listening-pregnant-body
