Paper short abstract:

With anthropological and fashion theoretical methods, this project inspects the role hospital gowns take during birth. It is expected to find a lack in suitability between dress and situation, which shall act as a fertile ground for speculative and mother-baby-continuum-oriented design approaches.

Paper long abstract:

In the history of research, a lot more has been reflected on how to die well than how to birth well (Stone 2019, 1). The recent interdisciplinary field of mother studies is editing this and other imbalances. So far, research has been conducted i.a. about the interior design (Balabanoff 2019), consciousness (Dahan 2023), and the type of social interactions (Shabot 2020) promoting a positive birthing experience.

Just as we are in-clothes when doing most things in our lives (Martach 2018), we also birth-in-clothes. Clothes do not always surrender to the actions we perform in them; but can hinder, cut into, irritate nerves as well as skins (Smelik 2018, 36; Martach 2021). And clothes can also enable, facilitate, and stimulate (Ruggerone 2016). The clothes we birth in, for most: the hospital gown, so far has not gained any research attention. The present project seeks to fill this gap.

In her corporeal behaviour, the “birthing subject” (Villarmea 2024, 3) could be said to “become-animal” (Deleuze and Guattari 2004, 267f.): Birth affords and happens in poses that exceed the ordinary everyday. Does the hospital gown (its materiality, cut) not just mercifully allow for, but actively move along these? Inhowfar is it capable to provide dignity and a feeling of safety in a situation of special intimacy? Besides, research already approved the positive outcome of positioning the born on the mother’s chest directly after birth. Might this practice, and the autonomy in other acts be impeded by gowns being closed/opened solely in the back?