Culturally Diverse Women Giving Birth: Their Stories

Abstract

Sixteen-year-old Anna gave birth to her second child in the Salvation Army Clinic in the Ashanti Province of Ghana, having lost her first. She thanked God for safe passage for herself and for the child. “Whether I cried or shouted I was going to give birth to the baby, so there’s no need for us to cry or shout. All that I needed to do was to keep calm and be praying in my mind to God so that He could help me to have a safe delivery.” Birth stories are a means of accessing the social context and meaning of bearing and rearing children in women’s lives. Birth stories document the profound experiences of culturally diverse childbearing women.