‘I’m very open about it if people ask’: Selective sharing,seeking community and careful censoring in women’s epistemic practices surrounding childbirth experiences

Abstract

This study sought to explore which possibilities for voicing childbirth experiences women who have given birth experience having, and what types of knowledge they share in different social contexts. With an interpretative phenomenological analysis, conducted in collaboration between academic researchers and The Birthing Experience Panel, the study explores nine Danish women’s accounts of articulating and sharing experiential childbirth knowledge. The analysis presents two main themes and six subthemes: (1) Women differentiate practices of voicing of their childbirth experiences by dosing details: by relational proximity, by listener’s insight, and by the expertise of health professionals and (2) Women maneuver sharing experiential knowledge, through seeking community, considering countering experiences and careful censoring, differentiated by the childbirth experiences held by the listener. We lean on concepts from feminist epistemology as we discuss how individual epistemic practices rely on cultural perceptions of the value of experiential childbirth knowledge. The detailed understanding of how experiential childbirth knowledge is shared and valued in women’s daily lives can contribute to broader discussions on efforts to build collective knowledge resources and include experiential knowledge in the organization of reproductive health care.