This week we’re reading and excerpt from Kim Hensley Owens’s Writing Childbirth. You may find the following discussion questions helpful in formulating your response: 

• Owens argues that “women who write birth plans expect to be ‘rhetorically disabled’ during childbirth” (69). What do you think this means? How does the genre of a birth plan attempt to counteract this silencing? 
• What are some of the generic conventions of the five birth plans Owen’s analyzes? What does this teach us about the genre’s purpose? How might templates shape a woman’s expectations for childbirth?
• What did you learn from this chapter that could be applied to your research?