Pain "Is" the Club: Identity and Membership in the Natural Childbirth Community

Abstract

Based upon interview data collected from 50 respondents, this study examines how expectant mothers navigate the divide between natural and non-natural childbirth when faced with the dilemma of using chemical pain management. The vast majority of participants in this study had strong intentions of delivering without any type of chemical pain management, but when faced with intense physical pain and/or coaxing from medical authorities, made the decision to use an epidural. Respondent accounts illustrate that the decision to use an epidural effectively removed them from membership in the “natural childbirth club.” In order to better understand this process of group inclusion/exclusion, I draw upon the symbolic interaction frameworks of George Herbert Mead (1934) and Norbert Wiley (1995), paying special attention to their theories of the self. This study concludes that the decision to use chemical pain management in the childbirth process is often done so at the expense of changes in identity with respect to the Generalized Other of the “natural childbirth” community.