Research Jana Declercq

Abstract

This project examines discourses and interactions around childbirth in the diverse setting of the city of Antwerp. Giving birth is not just a clinical event; it is also a socio-cultural phenomenon, as shaped by and reflected in how we talk about it. This social and discursive component can have a tangible impact on whether birthing people have a positive or negative birth experience. It therefore is important to unearth how birth is spoken about in society, in participants' communities and networks, and in birth care consultations, and how sociocultural understandings of pregnancy, birth, birth care, and parenthood come into play in these settings. A linguistic ethnographic approach can provide a better understanding of the larger set of norms and assumptions discursively constructed around childbirth, and which actors participate in producing this discourse. This project will therefore observe and interview a group of first-time pregnant people, and examine the multiple and potentially contradictory discursive constructions of birth and birth care they encounter and produce. These observations will more specifically consist of research interviews before and after birth; observations of prenatal clinical and non-clinical interactions befoer and after birth; and observations of interactions during birth. These will be analysed using several qualitative methods, such as discourse analysis, interaction analysis, and qualitative coding. As this project has significant societal relevance, it aims to do wider disseminations of the findings, and recommendations for practice will be formulated.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Declercq Jana

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project