ABSTRACT
Daughters of the Revolution are a theatre performance drawn from the lived experiences of women and midwifery students within the Irish maternity services. Theatre of the Oppressed is concerned with disrupting the dominant narrative. Dominant narratives within a society are created through the 'interacting social, economic, political, and symbolic structures'. The dominant narrative on birth in Ireland is one of medical authority, where scientific knowledge is privileged over the embodied knowledge of women and the embodied practice of midwives. Drawing on the lived experiences of women within the Irish maternity services and student midwives, the play links the personal to the political. It affirms women's experiences and explores the power dynamic underlying the maternity services. The levelling of knowledge hierarchies could be seen in the acceptance by health care professionals of the validity of the portrayal in Daughters of the Revolution and through that acceptance there was movement towards dialogue with women and families.
