Birth Futures of India
A community center in Adhog (डढोग) in Himachal Pradesh, India, served as an incubator for futures explorations. A series of improvised and innovative workshops gathered the voices of a pregnant woman, mothers, and community health workers to reimagine the future of childbirth from a rural Indian perspective.
Facilitated by researcher Priya Sharma, who grew up in the village, these hybrid virtual and in-person sessions that took place on May 1st, 15th and June 15th 2024 created a safe space for participants to openly share their birth experiences and project their hopes onto speculative scenarios.
High-tech tools
The methodology blended traditional dialogue with cutting-edge tools like AI-generated images depicting futuristic yet culturally-grounded birth scenarios. Prompts like “What if the world was ruled by women?” sparked lively discussions about gender roles, agency and decisionmaking around pregnancy and childbirth.
Based on short interviews and conversations with local woman, AI artist Amritha Warrier created AI visuals that provided evocative jumping-off points for the participants to envision possible new realities.
Yearnings for different futures
Some of the strongest yearnings that emerged were for more compassionate, humanized care during birth - a departure from the overcrowded and impersonal hospital wards many had experienced in the (recent) past. The visions spoke of comfortable labor rooms channeling the warmth and expertise of traditional midwives, but integrated with modern vidence-based practices.
There were longings for pain-free deliv ries, and curiosity about possibilities like water births that could ease labor – in response to an AI-generated image that projected water birth into the future, something these women were unaware of was already a possibility in the present. There was a strong desire to have the medical facilities for a safe birth within their village and functional, motorable roads to nearby healthcare facilities. Some wondered if future technologies might transcend age limits, allowing even elders to experience the profundity of childbirth.
Reproductive autonomy
While the women acknowledged the hardships of their remote mountain living, their imaginations still explored bold new possibilities. Some wondered if future societies could prioritize values like care, reciprocity and community interdependence in all spheres of life, as well as value their personal experiences: a future with episetmic justice. A few participants even raised the idea of ectogenesis - gestating babies fully outside the womb - as a radical alternative to conventional pregnancy. Across the board, participants recognized that how we envision and structure the birthing experience has wide-ranging i pacts. Their visions, while rooted in their Himalayan contexts, contained insights relevant to birthing futures everywhere. Recurring themes included integrating technology alongside traditional midwifery wisdom, and ensuring true reproductive autonomy and justice, not just with respect to birth, but also climate justice, where future generations could lead a life void of environmental disasters and breathable air.
Ultimately, despite their isolated village settings, these women still dreamed of childbirth models that could work for people in any context. Their perspectives underscored the universal need for perinatal care that blends medical advancements with human-centered, culturally-sensitive practices honoring people’s basic needs and rights as birthing persons.
Download the Birth Futures zine to explore results from this workshop and others across the world.