Abstract
The subjective childbirth experience is crucial from a public health standpoint. There are correlations between a negative childbirth experience and a poor mental state after birth. I offer a new approach to how insights from consciousness research can promote the science of human birth. The theory of set and setting proves that peak experiences are shaped, first and foremost, by the mindset of an individual entering the experience (set) and the surroundings in which the experience happens (setting). The history of psychedelics’ extreme polar experiences directs us to give more attention to how non-physiological factors shape altered states of consciousness and their effects on the mind and body. Because recent studies suggest that birthing women enter an altered state of consciousness during physiological birth, I analyze the typical modern birthing experience in terms of set and setting theory. Transferring these ideas from consciousness studies to birth healthcare can help design, navigate, and explain many human birth process psycho-physiological elements. Moreover, because women also give birth with their minds, not just their bodies – these new ideas challenge one of the rooted premises of modern obstetrics: that birth progresses as it does purely from a physiological mechanism. Thus, framing and characterizing human childbirth in different terms, transferred from consciousness research, is a central tool to promote physiological births and subjective positive birthing experiences, which is currently a primary yet unreached goal in modern obstetrics and public health.
Presenters
Orli DahanSenior Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Tel-Hai College, HaZafon, Israel
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2024 Special Focus—Traveling Concepts: The Transfer and Translation of Ideas in the Humanities
KEYWORDS
Altered consciousness, Birthing Consciousness, Obstetrics, Psychedelic research, Set and Setting
