THE LIFESTYLES AND WORLDVIEWS OF MOMS WHO CHOOSE HOME BIRTH IN HAWAIʻI

Abstract

This study focuses on the worldviews and lifestyles of moms who chose homebirth in Hawaiʻi. I conducted one-on-one interviews with 59 moms who birthed outside the hospital in Hawaiʻi. Interviews were conducted between May 2018 and May 2019. The findings of this study reveal that the choice of homebirth shapes and is shaped by worldviews, health lifestyle, identity, spirituality, collectivities, and place. The findings also suggest that participants navigated social constraints as well as asserted agency in their homebirth choices. These findings contribute to health lifestyle theory in medical sociology in that spirituality and place/ʻāina with a family-centered worldview play a large role in the adoption of and influence on health lifestyles (as well as the choice of homebirth). Reclamation of birth choices and cultural practices and “taking back” of feminine power and agency reveal that participants, particularly Kānaka Maoli mothers in this study, continue to feel the effects of colonization, patriarchy, medical authority, and the occupation of Hawaiʻi. These findings also advance intersectional scholarship on racialization, Indigenous experience, and gender in terms of homebirth. Finally, this research contributes to feminist theory in terms of forging concepts of birth, identity, and the microbiome in shaping our social relationships.