ABSTRACT
It is my intention to explore the characteristics of this situation. I will consider the meaning of ‘natural’ and then show how childbirth in Britain today has become a medical event, occurring almost exclusively in hospital and resembling, according to Angela Phillips, ‘treatment for a life-threatening illness’.2 Some of the ways in which mothers and their partners have attempted to regain control of their own experiences, principally by attending ‘natural’ childbirth classes will be discussed. As a theoretical base I will be using selected works of Michel Foucault3 on the mechanisms of power, focusing particularly on knowledge, observation and surveillance, and William Arney4 has provided a comprehensive and persuasive outline of obstetric power. To illustrate certain points I will quote, using pseudonyms, from some of the experiences of women who have attended the classes I have facilitated as an antenatal teacher with the National Childbirth Trust.5
