Birthing in Unprecedented Times

Nadia von Benzon is Lecturer in Human Geography at Lancaster University, UK. She researches children and mothers, and has published on topics as diverse as access to outdoor green space, disability, home education, historic child migration and Victorian Reformatory Farms.  Rebecca Whittle is a scholar and activist whose work centres on care and emotional and relational geographies. She has worked across a number of fields including food, flooding, energy and children and family life. Participatory action research and ecofeminism are key influences in her research and teaching. Jo Hickman-Dunne is a social geographer and Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research interests span youth development and engagement in informal education, as well as advocating for research approaches that support and champion youth voice. She is an author in the edited book Unfamiliar Landscapes: Young People and Diverse Outdoor Experiences (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).     

Chapter One: Birth as/in unprecedented times.- Chapter 2: Locating risk and fear in childbirth.- Chapter 3: Whose knowledge matters and what knowledge counts: the role of knowledge and expectations in childbirth and perinatal experience.- Chapter 4: Risk and loss of autonomy during birth.- Chapter 5: Birthing in unprecedented times.- Chapter 6: Conclusion.