Counter-Narratives of Childbirth in the UK: Developing Visual Languages of Embodied Birth Through Expanded Drawing Practice

Cultural narratives and cultural imagery around childbirth in the UK remain dominated by a medicalised framework where the connections between physical, psychological and social dimensions of birth and the consciousness of the birthing woman remain unseen, missing, hidden or lost. This practice-based project, through first-hand interviews will explore the language that those who have experiences of home-birth turn to, as a way of giving expression to experiences of birth-giving, potentially beyond rational consciousness. Through expanded drawing and socially engaged practices, how can a lexicon of birth be developed that is outside the boundaries of dominant Western ideas of the body?