Abstract

This thesis investigates the relationship birthing women have to obstetrical technology and how it transforms their experience of birth as a way of addressing the more general question of our relationship to technology. The research is a heuristic undertaking in that it is based on the application of philosophy of technology to the contemporary culture of western childbirth to demonstrate the relevance of this philosophical discourse to issues surrounding childbirth. But it also shows how the examination of childbirth grounds philosophy of technology in concrete issues which illuminate how structural forces, competing socio-political interests, as well as the very nature of technology constitutes the larger technological environment. The convergence of two distinct bodies of literature---philosophy of technology and sociology of midwifery---provides the theoretical focus of the work. ;This investigation begins by considering the role of technology in the ascendance of the profession of obstetrics and the consequent demise of the practice of midwifery, then brings the discussion into the present by considering the implications of legalizing midwifery and having it regulated by the state. To complete the theoretical framework the study presents an overview of four contemporary perspectives on the philosophy of technology and suggests one---Albert Borgmann's---as an efficacious framework for investigating women's relationships to obstetrical technology. ;The other focus of this work is a qualitative empirical one, relying on surveys and interviews to investigate women who have given birth at home contrasted with women who have given birth in the hospital. The methodological approach is taken from writing within the field of feminist methodology. The research investigates women's immediate relationships to obstetrical technology , the relationship they had to the technological infrastructure (medical practitioners and the hospital itself, and their place within our "technological environment." The research revealed that the birthing women's relationships to technology were largely influenced by the extent to which they had brought technology into their awareness, or "thematized" it. Those who sought to avoid the use of technology in birth tended to have thematized it to a higher degree than those who condoned its use