Building community around freebirth

Whilst the vast majority of births take place in hospitals, a small minority of people choose to freebirth, that is, to give birth at home without medical assistance. This article draws on interviews with freebirthers and ethnographic research within their online and offline communities in France, Quebec and North Carolina. It examines how digital technologies facilitate the formation of networks among women who engage in this alternative and particularly stigmatized form of childbirth. While contributing to the formation of discreet communities brought together around shared experiences and knowledge, the specific modes of interaction within online groups play a central role in avoiding conflict, despite the profound political divisions running through these spaces. This avoidance of conflict appears to be a prerequisite for the survival of these groups and fosters the emergence of subtle forms of politicization around shared reproductive experiences.