Anna C Church, MA
Doctoral Student
Hello! I'm Anna, and I am a 3rd year doctoral student in Sociology at The Ohio State University. I am also affiliated with The Institute for Population Research. My research interests include reproduction, gender, medicine, obstetric and reproductive violence, and fertility and childbearing desires. I have several ongoing projects in these areas including both individual work and collaborative projects with faculty and other graduate students. For my 2nd year paper, I use qualitative methods to explore women's cultural constructions and understandings of childbirth, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on birth experiences, especially through the lens of hospital visitor restrictions, and experiences with violence during labor and delivery.
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Latest Research
My current research explores people's conceptions of 'natural' and medical related to childbirth specifically but also to medicine more generally. How people understand what is 'natural' and what is medical about childbirth has changed with increasing medicalization of pregnancy and birth as well as the expansion of midwifery into more mainstream medical birthing spaces. These changes in the structuring and provision of maternity care influence people's cultural norms about birth, as well as their care options, and potentially reshape the 'natural'/medical dichotomy. Anticipatory expectations of birth as painful also shape people's ideas about 'natural' and medical, and the ways in which people respond to childbirth pain follow from their cultural ideals of birth and what it should be like.
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I have a paper under review that examines women's birth experiences during COVID-19 in the context of hospital visitor restrictions. Specifically, I use these experiences as a lens through which to understand how gendered expectations and assumptions of men's roles and place during childbirth were disrupted by their newfound place as a solitary support person for their birthing partner. I explore the ways in which men 'step up' and support their birthing partner in the absence of any other options.