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The moral dangers of home birth: parents’ perceptions of risks in home birth in Finland
Author(s) -
Viisainen Kirsi
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.00231
Subject(s) - home birth , subtext , childbirth , medicine , perception , family medicine , nursing , pregnancy , psychology , art , genetics , literature , neuroscience , biology
This study explored Finnish home‐birth parents’ perceptions of risks in home birth through interviews. It was found that the parents considered three types of risks in their decision‐making: medical risks of pregnancy and birth, iatrogenic risks of medical practice and moral risks of going against medical authoritative knowledge. While the parents’ choice was guided by their image of the hospital as an iatrogenic environment for birth, they did not refuse prenatal examinations but, rather, negotiated the extent of their use to ensure the medical safety of their home‐birth plan. Yet, they often concealed the plan from prenatal care staff in order not to be confronted with being labelled as a ‘risk parent’. It is argued that the authoritative medical definition of childbirth as risky and as requiring hospitalisation contains a moral subtext which defines home birth as risky behaviour, for which the parents can be blamed and stigmatised.