BIRTH Oral History Archive

Abstract

The BIRTH Oral History Archive (BOHA) is a public humanities project designed to collect first-hand stories of childbirth and pregnancy loss, capturing how birth stories are remembered and integrated into comprehensive life narratives. Participant Narrators engage in a multi-step interview process allowing narrators to construct the shape of their story, define the scope of the narrative timeline, and identify key events independently, thus acknowledging and prioritizing their authoritative knowledge.

The medicalization of birth resulted in the marginalization of the embodied experience, leaving many birthing people without narrative authority over their own birth experience. The recollective process facilitates identity construction and allows individuals to continually integrate and evaluate the meaning of significant life events such as childbirth. Building on Annette Kuhn’s concept of “memory work,” the BOHA project and interview process prioritizes the (re)constructive meaning-making inherent in the act of retelling, allowing narrators to regain narrative authority. As a public humanities project, BOHA further positions participants within a meaningful continuum, reflecting the perpetual contemporary through community-driven priorities and values.

Through their Archive birth stories Participant Narrators articulate key power dynamics throughout their pregnancy and birth experiences, and the ways these experiences and acts of revisitation have influenced their sense of self and their position within broader life continuums as well as the socio-cultural landscape.