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The Doula Dialectic

Feminist Rhetorics for Childbirth

The Doula Dialectic cover

The Doula Dialectic

Feminist Rhetorics for Childbirth

Quantity
Pre-order. Available 15 Oct 2026
£64.80 RRP £81.00 Website price saving £16.20 (20%)

Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available

Description

Offering firsthand insight into the world of doula work, Sheri Rysdam shows how doulas are well-positioned to engage as advocates, to employ rhetorical strategies to facilitate greater care and consent, and to connect birthing people to community-based care.

The author – who is both a trained doula and a rhetorician – uses feminist methodologies to bridge rhetorical strategies and theoretical discussions with personal experience and narrative accounts of childbirth. In doing so, readers get an experiential, embodied, and community-based practice and theory of childbirth and doula work that is situated at the intersection of feminist rhetorics and reproductive justice.

With a mix of theory, practice, and experience, this book is relevant to scholars and students of rhetoric, feminist theory, and reproductive justice advocates; childbirth attendants, such as doulas and other nonmedical support people; medical practitioners, including midwives, obstetricians, nurses and their students; pregnant people; and others interested in improving childbirth.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface

Introduction
1. Rhetoric's Role in Doula Work: Feminist Understandings, Analysis, and Activism
2. A Long History of Reproductive Violence: Witches, Midwives, Femicide, and Oppression
3. Contemporary Childbirth Settings and the Need for Doulas
4. Doulas as Advocates
5. The Doula-Rhetor: Rhetorical Interventions by Doulas
6. Community Connection: Models for Doula Programs
7. Advocacy in Action: Feminist Rhetorical Strategies for Childbirth Justice

Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 15 Oct 2026
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 208
ISBN 9781978771864
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 1 bw illus
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Sheri Rysdam

Sheri Rysdam is Professor of English/Writing and W…

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