The editors are pleased to present a “found cluster” (a set of articles written and submitted independently, but later identified as sharing a common theme) on the topic of freedom, autonomy, and inclusion in relation to birthing.
In “The Many Faces of Birthing Freedom,” Rachelle Chadwick asks what birth would be like in a feminist world, and what a feminist understanding of freedom means in relation to birthing. In “Autonomy, Violence, and Consent in the Obstetric Field,” Andrés Restrepo-Sánchez argues that attending to autonomy can be part of a successful strategy for preventing obstetric violence, but only when it is understood in relation to the cultural contexts within which people give birth and the other actors they relate to within these contexts. In “Caring for Everyone: Effective and Inclusive Communication in Perinatal Care,” Matthew J. Cull, Jules Holroyd, and Fiona Woollard consider gender inclusive language in perinatal and postnatal care, developing a novel approach that is pluralistic, offering several different strategies that can be employed in different contexts.
All of these articles contribute in different ways to the endeavour of improving the conditions under which people give birth—a vital feminist task—and we hope readers will enjoy considering them alongside one another.