Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2021
Abstract
Birth doulas provide non-medical intimate support to pregnant people and their families. This support starts at the very foundation of life – breath. Doulas remind, encourage and accompany people through labour by breathing with them. However, the global COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted doulas’ intimate work, and they are forced to navigate new restrictions surrounding birth practices. Based on data collected from a qualitative survey of over five-hundred doulas as well as subsequent follow-up interviews with select doulas, we find intimacy at births disrupted and reshaped. We suggest that an analysis of doulas provides a unique way to think through the complexities surrounding reproduction precisely due to doulas’ ability to navigate intimate labour between and across boundaries.
Recommended Citation
Castañeda, A. N., & Searcy, J. J. (2021). Practising Intimate Labour: Birth Doulas Respond during COVID-19, Anthropology in Action, 28(1), 21-24. doi:10.3167/aia.2021.280104
Comments
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). For uses beyond those covered in the license contact Berghahn Books.