Freebirth and the Limits Reproductive Autonomy
Project summary
This project explores the contributions of birth workers who support women in and through “out of system” births. It asks about how and why they provide care in the ways they do, and the boundaries they set for themselves and the people they support through pregnancy, labour, and post-partum. It also explores the implications of policy and law on this community of birth workers, and explores possibilities for change.
Drawing on policy documents, “grey literature,” and interviews with unregulated birth workers (e.g., doulas, birth keepers, birth companions, birth attendants, birth advocates, among others), it will explore the ways that these birth workers understand and establish their practice, including how they navigate enabling reproductive autonomy outside of the medical system (as well as the limits of that work).
This project is a collaboration between Alana Cattapan (Political Science), Katy Fulfer (Philosophy), and Jennifer Liu (Anthropology) in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo, and funded by an Emerging Schools Interdisciplinary Research Project Grant (2026-2027).