Homebirth Advocacy on the Internet

On-line depictions of the maternal and birthing body in the familial and communal context aims to destigmatize the “natural” (i.e., the non-intervened) body by putting birth – and representations of birth – back into women’s hands and homes. The many rich and diverse representations of amateur homebirth home movies on the Internet are part of an on-going visual effort to make and exhibit visual documents of and about the maternal, birthing body that upholds the (w)holistic model of childbirth and thus furthering the emotional, visual, and political stakes of the homebirth movement both on-line and in real life. As part of the rich history of alternative representations of childbirth – and alternative birth practices such as homebirth – that reworks the traditionally taboo subject of childbirth with the said goal of empowering women and their families, contemporary on-line representations of homebirth are politically, corporeally, and emotionally invested.