The birth is a part of women’s and their loved ones’ lives rich in emotions and full of memories. Each experience is unique and a story is shared not only with families, but also with friends and colleagues. And these stories intertwine with knowledge about obstetric practices, superstitions and stereotypes, and one can learn a lot about implications of cultural background and historical heritage from these.
On March 24, 2021 the Gender Museum Ukraine held online #BirthCafe in Zoom. Despite its quite unusual nature the conversations about childbirth turned out to be warm and touching. Emotional stories told by key speakers in the zoom rooms helped all participants to gradually open up and share their own experience.
Some of the stories were about birth in Soviet era, other – about more recent births. The women compared atmosphere and obstacles faced by women in labor at maternity hospitals in different periods and discussed benefits of labor companionship. Since it is an endless topic many other issues such as maternity, breastfeeding, postpartum adaptation and other were also touched upon. Feedback from the participants was very positive and they intended to continue these conversations.
The organizers of the event from the Gender Museum Ukraine announced further plans to participate in a unique international project “Birth Cultures: Journey through European History and Traditions around Birth and Maternity”
