ABSTRACT
Technological intervention in human reproduction is a new norm. In this chapter I focus on reproductive technophilia and reproductive technophobia in childbirth. I interpret technological and nontechnological, but techné centered, childbirth through a phenomenological lens. Nontechnological childbirth is not synonymous with natural childbirth insofar as the latter (usually) refers to an automatic, biological process that simply overtakes the woman and activates a putatively innate birthing knowledge. I eschew this essentialist and patriarchal interpretation because it collapses childbirth into a passive, bodily function rather than viewing it as active work (Held 1989: 364). My working assumption is that all approaches to childbirth are always already culturally conditioned and involve some deliberation and choice—making by the pregnant woman.
