Antenatal preparation as care: birth stories and collective learning at work

Distressing and harmful birth experiences are the norm even in well-resourced countries, and conventional antenatal education struggles to adequately prepare birthing people. Drawing on previous research in support of participant-led antenatal education, a recent UK-based ethnographic study asks how birthing people use collective practices to produce birth knowledge. Data comes from participant observation at 24 antenatal sessions (<i>n</i> = 201) including conventional classes and community-based groups, plus 5 interviews with session leaders. The researcher analysed data using a novel application of template analysis, framed by feminist technoscience, ethnography and socio-narratology. Findings show how group-led sessions, storytelling and other collective knowledge practices <i>take care</i> of birthing people. Several facets of care emerge from this inquiry, such as materiality, emotionality, working athwart dominant narratives and creating "care-full" absences or spaces. Excerpts from antenatal preparation sessions specifically demonstrate various approaches to knowledge working - and caring - in practice. A focus on real-life examples and implications ensures findings are useful and relevant for birthing women, midwives, antenatal educators, institutions, policymakers and more.