ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explores the corporeal politics of birth. It shows that biomedical vocabularies were integral to the construction of modes of birthing agency and stories about birth. The book argues that the use of medical technologies and interventions does not always equal unhappiness and a 'natural' or vaginal birth does not always equal satisfaction and contentment. It highlights the ontological politics of birth. The book also explores violations during labor/birth often targeted the power and vitality of fleshy laboring/birthing bodies, working to erase, mute and constrict women's capacities to enact forms of embodied agency during labor/birth. The psychofleshy complexities of labor/birth and the embodied perspective of the birthgiver were enacted in/through fleshy and excessive tellings. Ontological frames were central forces vitalizing and shaping material-discursive practices and the treatment of laboring/birthing bodies.
