Storytelling proved central to mother-to-mother antenatal group practices, providing not only information, but also a means for understanding. Analysis of antenatal session transcripts suggested that birth-related storytelling facilitated learning through various mechanisms: Stores (re)shaped expectations, shared practical techniques, navigated different truth claims and approaches to knowledge, and helped build supportive communities of parents. These findings emerged more prominently in group-led sessions compared to teacher-led sessions.
(Re)shaping expectations
Women in Homebirth sessions often used stories to answer questions about childbirth, and shape and reshape expectations about labour. Contrasting tales revealed a wide variation in labour experiences, for example in a Homebirth discussion where four women discussed ‘pushing’ during the second stage of labour. Using several first-hand and second-hand stories, the excerpt demonstrated some consensus (“you just have to listen to your body”) alongside contrasting bodily sensations (“your body will push,” “I felt like I did push,” “they did not push at all, they just breathe”), labour experiences (a rapid second stage, or a long delay between second-stage contractions) and interactions with midwives (“telling you to push against a closed door,” saying “just wait”). In addition to presenting a range of expectations for childbirth, this excerpt depicted a range of approaches to knowing childbirth, for example trust and resistance to intuition, and positively and negatively ceding control to health professionals. This aspect of storytelling bears further discussion below.
Either in relation to direct questions or more spontaneously, stories also reported emotional and physical self-experiences that rarely appeared in teacher-led discussions. Subjective accounts vividly related the embodied experience of childbirth. For example, Emma described her sensations in detail during the second stage: “But the feeling of him actually crowning, and then, the relief when that happened. And then the feeling of his shoulders rippling for the next one, I will never forget that. Ripple. <Laughs>.” In another excerpt, several women discussed their experiences of pain:
Excerpt 1
Holly: I think it is important to trust your instincts as well, because I knew when I was fully dilated and she was coming. And I told the midwife, and she was like, oh no, if you were in that final stage you’d be in so much more pain, you wouldn’t be able to cope with it. <Laughs> …I remember them asking, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much pain are you in? And I wasn’t thinking about that. But I remember people saying you have to lay it on thick. So like, oooh, 8, 9! <Laughter>
Becky: It’s not always pain is it, it’s a sensation. My husband kept asking me, <gruff voice> are they strong, like? How painful, are they painful? And I was just like, I don’t know. I just carried on doing my thing.
Sarah: People say, other friends that have babies. I dunno, it’s not pain, like pain-pain –
Becky: Like stubbing your toe, or breaking your leg.
Sarah: Yeah, for me, it was something completely different. And manageable.
Holly: Because I didn’t know before I had Jack that it wasn’t just going to be constant.
Sarah: Yeah, when it’s strong you can just think, in a minute, it’s gonna pass. Keep breathing. And I think as well from TV, and films and things, you think it builds to this crescendo. But for me, the worst bit was the first stage. And when it got to the breathing baby down stage, or pushing, or however you want to describe it, like, that was a relief.
Nicola: Yeah, I agree, yeah.
This exchange challenged mainstream equivalences between childbirth and pain, while affirming the intensity of subjective experience and the role of intuition. The women complicated typical portrayals of childbirth pain by using humour, refusing to quantify or externalise their experience, and emphasising the existence of other physical sensations. Like many examples of storytelling, this discussion worked on several levels, not only shaping childbirth expectations, but also sharing practical advice, and working to build a positive homebirth community. These mechanisms receive further discussion below.
A further Homebirth excerpt regarding placenta delivery provided an example of women discussing an oft-overlooked aspect of childbirth. Beginning with the consensus that many women had felt unprepared for the third stage, the conversation turned to issues around receiving the syntocinon or ergometrine injection to facilitate placenta delivery. Several women told personal stories that illuminated a range of experiences of the third stage (placenta coming naturally after an hour, or nine hours) and of decision-making with midwives (receiving the injection without being asked, being told the injection was needed after 20 minutes, negotiating about the injection with regard to other factors like bleeding). As in stories about pushing and the physical sensations of childbirth, multiple stories about the final stage of labour highlighted new issues for pregnant women to consider, and enabled diverse expectations and interpretations.
Practical guidance
Situated in real-life contexts and often presented in an engaging manner, stories effectively passed on numerous practical techniques and ideas for birthing women. Due to the dearth of first-hand childbirth experiences, NCT participants shared relatively few stories. However the following exchange of second-hand stories addressed the issue of postnatal perineal soreness:
Excerpt 2
Lauren: My friend also said she was sore down below, and she was surprised by that.
Megan: Apparently you have to pour a glass of water when you wee because it burns…
Shelley: And the first poo –
Sophie: It’s really traumatic!
Diana: My friend said it was like having a baby again and in the end she just had to stand up, she didn’t care. It was so awful.
Here, anecdotes enabled discussion about a key topic of concern – genital damage – that appeared fleetingly but repeatedly in the NCT group, usually framed with humour, stilted speech and/or silence. Corroborating anecdotes helped these women to acknowledge mutual fears and share specific ideas that could help.
Homebirth stories frequently detailed descriptions of how women prepared for childbirth, or dealt with unexpected events during labour:
Excerpt 3
Emma: One thing that helped me was to have my in-case-of-hospital plan written down.
Alex: In case of hospital I’ll be like, general anaesthetic, sedate the hell out of me. I’m just so phobic of hospitals, I’m scared of doctors touching me…
Emma: I had a list of things I’m willing to accept, things that are absolute no go – <Alex: Yeah – > and things that if you prove to me this is a genuine medical emergency I’ll take it on – <Alex: Yeah – > and that my midwife knew it word for word. We submitted it to the hospital and made sure they knew it word for word – <Alex: Oh, really – > I could relax into it then…
Sarah: Can you say, if I go to hospital, can I only see a midwife?
Alex: Oh yeah, true. One of my friends had her baby at 35 weeks interestingly. She says, her memory of birth is like, sitting in a pool, breathing away, her husband just in the corner quietly. He says that’s not true, I was outside signing every disclaimer under the sun ‘cuz you were 35 weeks and they wanted to intervene and they wanted to do this and they wanted to do that. And he was like, I spent your entire labour arguing with people, to get them to leave you alone. So, I could just do that.
Beginning with humour and escapism (“sedate me”), these anecdotes compiled practical suggestions (“a list,” trusted midwife, partner as mediator) on the crucial issue of how women may feel secure amid the inherent unpredictability of labour. In another excerpt, stories provided further, sometimes contrasting ideas for dealing with change (writing a birth plan, refusing to write a birth plan, packing a just-in-case hospital box, maintaining open dialogue with carers). Beyond the ideas it contained, a personal account acted as a practical example in itself, of a woman who passed through the uncertainty of labour and emerged to tell the story.
Homebirth discussions and stories often highlighted practical methods for facilitating and managing advanced labour. For example, Louise gave a detailed rundown of the use and success of various techniques during her labour (namely, a bath, TENS machine, birthing pool, music, candles, breathing, hypnobirthing, gas and air). Emma’s story described her active birth methods, including “trying to crab-walk sideways up the stairs” to help labour progress, and changing position to adjust baby’s angle of descent.
Several tales indicated how to deal with other people during labour, like Becky’s cautionary tale about her partner (“My husband was kind of stroking my arm and whispering sweet nothings… But what I wanted was to say, it’s okay, I’m fine, it’s a bit distracting”) and Holly’s account of managing her caregivers:
Excerpt 4
Holly: So I basically locked myself in [the hospital bathroom] on my own because I just didn’t want anyone around me. And when I went to the pool, I was just really bossy with the midwives. I was like, there’s a wall there, and I was like, <mock shouting> go and stand behind that wall! I don’t want to see you! <Laughter.> And there was nowhere else for her to go really. <Laughs.> She just kind of stood behind the wall and I could see her little clipboard. Like, <mock shouting, pointing> I don’t even want to see your clipboard! <Laughter.> So I just didn’t want people around me.
This entertaining anecdote – made funnier by the soft-spoken manner of its teller – fleshed out the notion that birthing women often seek privacy. By presenting practical tips in an individual context, stories offered more useful information on how to use various techniques or ideas.
Navigating knowledge
In addition to proposing practical techniques for labour, some stories suggested ways to negotiate different truths around childbirth. Stories often acted as mediators, bringing together complex arrangements of authoritative or quantitative knowledge, intuition or chaos. For example, Becky’s and Sarah’s exchange of stories about labour progression placed quantitative knowledge (centimetres of dilation) within the context of embodied experiences (pain or disappointment as a result of vaginal examination) and other physical signals (the labouring woman’s position, behaviour or vocalisations).
In another example, a story provided the focal point for a Homebirth discussion about due dates to strongly disparage authoritative claims as manipulative and inadequate sources of knowledge:
Excerpt 5
Laura: They say the placenta can –
Debbie: Calcify – <Laura: Yeah – > But calcification doesn’t have any impact on the placenta, it happens anyway.
Steph: But there are so many different options aren’t there, if it pleases them you can opt for the monitoring.
Joanna: And it’s not the nicest thing to talk about and they don’t tell you but it can happen anytime. So actually the monitoring is better…
Laura: It’s quite scary isn’t it, because if it’s anything to put your baby at risk, and then it’s that whole fear because obviously you don’t want to put your baby at risk…
Debbie: At the conferences yesterday. There was a speaker who had two homebirths, they lost their middle daughter. But she said, with her first I think it was, she was overdue and she didn’t want to be induced. And this consultant sat down at the edge of the bed and said, statistics, you’re putting your baby at risk. And the question she asked, and I think it’s an amazing question to ask, was… what is the risk to me, right now, and this baby? And the consultant was like, you’re not supposed to ask questions! You’re just supposed to go, oh no, that’s terrible risk! … The second time for them, it was a really massively rare thing. There are no statistics for that happening… It’s not even a nought point one percent statistic thing. And there was nothing anybody could have done about it… And you’ve taught two whole generations of women, everything will be fine for 42 weeks and then your baby goes off! <Assent>
Steph: Flips a little switch, that’s it… They should do what they do on the continent. Like, you’ll probably have it in, October. <Laughs.>
This excerpt mitigated external guidelines about due dates with humour, comparison (“what they do on the continent”), and alternative techniques for evaluating safety post-dates (e.g., foetal monitoring, consideration of other aspects of the individual’s situation). Perhaps most strikingly, the story discredited authoritative knowledge (“statistics”) by introducing chaos – the uncontrollable unknown – with reference to the unexpected tragedy of stillbirth.
A story could also recount how women made decisions during labour, a sort of knowledge-in-action, for example using the BRAIN decision-making technique (Benefits, Risks, Alternatives, Intuition, Nothing). While formal presentations of the BRAIN method in NCT and Homebirth groups were fairly abstract, Louise’s account described how the method worked in practice:
Excerpt 6
Louise: When the midwife came, she said my blood pressure was high. So when the next midwife came along, she said, oh it’s still high and we’d like to transfer you to hospital. So Dave put into use what we learned on the hypnobirthing course saying, you know, is the baby’s heart rate okay? Yes, that’s fine. Well, what are the risks? There is a small risk she could have a seizure. Um, okay what are our options? And they said well, we are happy to just monitor and as long as it stays the same, it was a go. It was a bit of a pain, when I was in the pool they had to keep taking my blood pressure and things… Then, just when he was like really nearly there, um, they took my blood pressure and it was really high. And so they said, we’re going to have to make the call to call an ambulance. Um, but, they said, it takes like twenty minutes for the ambulance to get here, and he’s really nearly there. So basically just crack on. <Laughter.> Ah, so I did. And he shot out <laughs> across the pool.
This empirical example turns abstract, medicalised notions of risk into a concrete, understandable set of concerns. In addition to advocating specific questions to facilitate decision-making, the excerpt portrays lay people – Louise and her partner – as suitable decision-makers. Further, this story shows the role that midwives played in negotiating risk, emphasising a collaborative approach to decision-making and knowledge. Like other practical techniques for labour, story-based demonstrations of decision-making during childbirth offer specific, grounded examples from which women can learn.
Building communities
At NCT and Homebirth groups, stories displayed a capacity to build communities by fostering positive, empathetic communication between parents. In many cases women appeared to draw confidence and support from story-based interactions during the session. This effect corresponded with both organisations’ central aims to increase parental confidence [45, 46].
Further, especially in the case of the Homebirth group, stories built positive visions of physiological childbirth behind which women could unite. Although neither group mentions this aim in their core statement of purpose, the message seems implicit: Most medical interventions are unavailable at home, and the NCT retains links to its historical emphasis on ‘natural’ birth [47]. This awareness of the groups’ agendas recalls Cosslett’s recognition that a peer group may provide assistance, discipline, or both [10].
For example, many Homebirth discussions prioritised non-medical approaches (e.g., physiological third stage, non-medical pain management), or associated hospital with disrespect, trauma or negativity (e.g., Excerpt 3, Emma’s references to her first birth, Laura’s story). Some anecdotes advocated physiological birth by minimising the role of pain (e.g., Excerpt 1), bypassing negative elements with humour (e.g., Joanna on perineal stitches and in Excerpt 8), or envisaging birth as pleasurable:
Excerpt 7
Sarah: My first birth was lovely, because when she was born at 5:40 in the morning, at the end of June. So it was like midsummer and the sun was coming up. And I could see out my doors into the garden, and the first morning light was the only light. So I was just staring, it was really peaceful and calm and lovely. I will always remember that moment.
While some women might have found Sarah’s description alienating or unrealistic, to others it could offer a reassuring, positive perspective rarely encountered in medical or mainstream representations of childbirth. This latter response seemed palpable at the group, compounded perhaps by the face-to-face context, and Sarah’s inclusive, accessible manner.
Alternative pictures also appeared at the Homebirth groups. Sarah recalled women who chose to birth in hospital, and Holly described her first birth as “a really lovely experience even though it was hospital. I was in the pool and it was really positive.” Further, by recognising and contextualising negative elements, stories may reassure women about their ability to face all eventualities:
Excerpt 8
Joanna: And then all of a sudden, like you were saying before, it just went from nought to 60 and I was like, oh my. And I was pulling at my hair, I was thinking, I didn’t even think this was transition. I was, I thought, <rapid voice, rising pitch> what is going on, I am not coping, I didn’t have pain relief last time, oh there’s no water in my pool, can’t even get in me pool. So I tried to get my TENS machine on, I had my phone taking pictures, they were all skew-wiff. So I just whacked it up to max and I were like, <mock panic> it’s not working!... I was saying, I can’t cope, I can’t cope. And Si was like, oh, these seem really intense these, love. I was like, yeah, fine, just tell me I’m being silly.
Joanna’s comedic tone, in the face of apparent pain, desperation and self-doubt, evoked much laughter, perhaps helping women build resilience amid the uncertainty of childbirth. Such confidence- and community-building work became apparent at several moments during the groups, such as the spontaneous clapping following Emma’s birth story. Even the story-based NCT exchange about perineal tears, by overcoming silence and taboo, engendered a feeling of community around shared fears and afflictions (Excerpt 2). Stories provided a vehicle for people to reassure one another, find common ground, and express solidarity, drawing upon and contributing to a supportive community of parents that may transcend any single antenatal session.
While participant observation could not establish the impact of storytelling within antenatal sessions, the content and context of stories suggest manifold capacities. As described above, stories worked to (re)shape expectations, share practical guidance, navigate birth knowledges and build communities. Reflection on these findings from the perspective of wider literature offers some ideas about the effects of birth stories on childbearing women.