Childbirth is a site of ongoing struggle over meaning, authority, regulation and control. This edited collection offers critical perspectives on current challenges in birth care by exploring how birth is shaped by competing epistemologies: medical, cultural, experiential and political.

The book addresses analytically and theoretically some of the many negotiations, tensions, contestations and dilemmas with regard to care practices as well as birthing experiences. Moreover, the book reflects on how these challenges can be grasped as dilemmas moving beyond the often-declared dichotomy between medical and midwifery models of care or natural versus medical birth. The chapters are authored by researchers within the fields of social and human sciences, located geographical in different countries within different historical, organisational and political birth care settings.

The book is oriented to not only scholars and students with interest into birth care but also practitioners and stakeholders politically and professionally engaged in the development of maternity care practices and settings.