Spirituality and childbirth: bringing a felt-sense into childbirth – a co-operative inquiry

PurposeAny discussion on the physiology of childbirth is incomplete without inclusion of spirituality. Current evidence in this field is emerging. Psychological, emotional and physical wellbeing are being increasingly... [ view full abstract ]

Purpose

Any discussion on the physiology of childbirth is incomplete without inclusion of spirituality. Current evidence in this field is emerging. Psychological, emotional and physical wellbeing are being increasingly connected with spirituality. To ignore and avoid discussing this aspect is to overlook what matters most at the heart of childbirth and informs all practice activities. The workshop will highlight practice changes that honour spirituality whilst grounded in 21^st Century childbirth practice realities. The workshop also seeks networking and collaborations going forward. The facilitators of this workshop have researched, written and published in the area of spirituality and childbirth. One of the facilitators has worked with John Heron and brings a unique facilitation to this workshop that adopts a modified co-operative inquiry approach.

Process of workshop

The practice of co-operative inquiry works ‘with’ rather than ‘on’ people. It is a way of us working with others who share comparable interests and concerns. It is a process of coming to understand our world, in this case spirituality and childbirth, and “develop new and creative ways of looking at things” (Heron and Reason, 2006, p. 144).

The inquiry will be fully participatory; each voice, whatever their background and personal views, will be ackanowldged as having equal value. The key to a truly co-operative inquiry will be honouring emergent authentic collaborations. For this to occur we will work together to establish safety in the group where any tensions in relation to the topic that arise can be openly expressed. The focus will be on finding ways that can change practice and discovery of how to do things better. The workshop will begin with two short presentations (10 minutes duration) that will serve as a broad basis for the following inquiry.

Then he co-operative inquiry opens with two questions:

• ‘How is spirituality experienced by you, women and their families in and around childbirth?

• ‘How does recognising spirituality in and around childbirth keep childbirth safe and normal?’

This workshop will provide opportunity for collaborative discussion of a significant yet often overlooked aspect of childbirth. The focus will be on enhancing practice from multiple perspectives and how participants relate to the world of childbirth e.g.  Education, policy, leadership, health care professionals and research.

Outcomes of workshop

The workshop will conclude with group agreement on how to take a spirituality and childbirth agenda forward. This may include identifying practice based solutions, fostering collaborations that facilitate development of an online ‘Special Interest Group’ (SIG), networking forum, generation of questions to be addressed and opportunities for research and publications.