“How I Gave Birth” (and Why I Am Writing about It): Women’s Narratives of First Childbirth Experiences from Internet Publications

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the research of the structures and meaningful concepts of women’s stories about the first childbirth, obtained by their personal experience in the governmental obstetrical system. Narratives of childbirth contain complex knowledge including description of physiological and emotional reactions and characteristics of Russian maternal initiation practices, culminating in the maternity ward. Similar narratives posted on social network and web pages of family portals reveal elements of hypertext and several leading factors of their origin, such as being the consolidation of a new identity through a retrospective autobiographical story, joining the community of motherhood, broadcasting experience to its new members, etc.