Midwifery care attachments: shaping childbirth agency through care techniques

Annekatrin Skeide^*

• Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Midwifery care has been shown to effectively enhance birth outcomes and improve childbirth experiences. It has, however, not yet been sufficiently articulated how exactly. Inspired by insights derived from feminist science and technology studies' engagements with caring in terms of empirical ethics, namely as situated practices of 'doing good', Tthis study explores how trustful and empowering relationships are crafted through midwifery birthing care techniques. To do so, it builds on insights derived from feminist science and technology studies' engagements with caring in terms of empirical ethics, namely as situated practices of 'doing good'. Using reflexive thematic analysis, I examine semi-structured interviews with midwives alongside ethnographic fieldwork conducted across various midwifery care settings in Germany. Setting two birthing stories in dialogue, I illustrate how bodies-in-labor emerge through collective, active, persistent and adaptive engagements with these dynamic entities in midwifery practice to make 'physiological' childbirth happen. Specifically, I argue that through the midwifery care techniques of 'spooning' and 'labor and birth positioning' midwifery birthing care attachments are fostered. I conceptualize these attachments as co-responsive, active-passive commitments aimed at sustaining endurable or even pleasurable relationships between embodied selves and bodies-in-labor. Investigating situated midwifery care techniques enables a detailed understanding of their specific qualities in particular childbirth situations, extending conventional notions of being-with and non-intervention. This approach allows to articulate, critically engage with, and strengthen midwifery-specific childbirth care practices.