"The project proposes an anthropological analysis on childbirth. It intends to explore doctors, obstetrics and women’s experiences on giving birth at home, and analyze the official medical, obstetrical and political discourse on this topic. A concern for the increasing medicalization of birth – particularly for the growth of caesarian sections - fosters this research. Could be birth at home – increasing both at public and private level – a good option to reach a more humanized model of birth without renouncing to the benefits of biomedicine? Could there be an intercultural model too, adequate not only for European women but also for Immigrant ones? Maternity’s Homes - an out-of-hospital way of birth implemented in three Italian regions will be observed and compared with other European countries experiences (Netherlands and Spain); the Italian health care system’s offer (birth at home is granted in some regions) will be also taken into account. An accurate analysis of the social actors’ point of view (doctors, obstetrics, women, institutions) will provide elements for a better understanding of how the medical system conceives women and their reproductive process, as well as of how women think of themselves and their own body. The employment of a qualitative methodology, based on in-depth interviews, will allow for this accuracy. The objective of the project is to construct an Intercultural and Ethical Code on Birth (IECB) to favour a better correspondence between demands and expectations of women and medical system needs. This Code - produced by the negotiation between different approaches to the body, to the health, to the reproduction expressed by the actors – is intended to be a point of reference for innovative birth policies at European level and will contribute to resolve situations of conflict and misunderstanding in relation to the exercise of the reproductive rights."