What is the medicalisation of childbirth?

The routine medicalisation of childbirth robs women, midwives, and society, of the knowledge and experience of what it is to have a normal birth.

What is the concept of medicalization?

Medicalization refers to the process in which conditions and behaviors are labeled and treated as medical issues. Critics have labeled this over-medicalization or disease mongering, since by labeling normal health variants as pathological states, medical industries have made enormous profits.

What is childbirth in sociology?

A sociological approach to pregnancy and childbirth centralises the social aspect of these physiological and biological events. Pregnancy and childbirth are social events in that they take place within a surrounding economic and social system and are understood within a cultural value system.

What is an example of medicalization sociology?

Examples of medicalized disorders include menopause, alcoholism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anorexia, infertility, sleep disorders, and erectile dysfunction (ED) [3].

How did the sociology of childbirth come about?

The sociology of childbirth emerged in the 1970s largely as a result of influences from outside sociology. These included feminism, maternity care activism, the increasing medicalisation of childbirth, and evidence‐based health care. This paper uses the author’s own sociological ‘career’ to map a journey through four decades of childbirth research.

Why is the medicalisation of childbirth socially constructed?

The knowledge of medicalisation in relation to childbirth is socially based by the society therefore is socially constructed. This is caused by the preparation of childbirth is suggested as delivering methods of dealing with the institution rather than the women experiencing the natural birth.

How did the medicalisation of childbirth reduce the number of overnight births?

Research developed by Fulcher and Scott (2011) further emphasises that drug technologies for inducing births have allowed hospitals to correlate childbirths with staff shifts, in order to conveniently reduce the number of overnight births.

Where does the medical profession believe birth should take place?

The medical profession seems to believe that birth should take place within the hospital setting as that is the standard norm of the modern society. To do any different would be to go against the standardisation of birth and possibly place the unborn child at risk, according to the views of society.