Risk, Reproduction, and Narratives of Experience

Lauren Fordyce And Aminata Maraesa

Description

As Carole Browner explains in her foreword: "These chapters compellingly reveal that although we anthropologists tend to speak of biomedicine in hegemonic terms, in fact its penetration is quite variable and often ambivalently met. . . . Risk, Reproduction, and Narratives of Experience sheds new light on a troubling core aspect of medicalization processes, which simultaneously render pregnant women more docile subjects even as they are impelled to actively engage with biomedicalized prenatal care regimes. . . . We also see that a consummate means by which states seek to consolidate power in the reproductive realm is through expansion of the biomedical concept of risk. This critical observation emerges repeatedly in this collection."

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Public Health
• Social Science
• Abortion
• Birth Control
• Health

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780826518217
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Risk, Reproduction, and Narratives of Experience

Edited by Lauren Fordyce and Amínata Maraesa

Risk, Reproduction, and Narratives of Experience

Risk, Reproduction, and Narratives of Experience

Edited by Lauren Fordyce and Amínata Maraesa

Foreword by Carole H. Browner Afterword by Rayna Rapp

Vanderbilt University PressnNashville

© 2012 by Vanderbilt University Press Nasville, Tennessee 37235 All rigts reserved First printing 2012

his book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in te United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Risk, reproduction, and narratives of experience / edited by Lauren Fordyce and Amínata Maraesa ; foreword by Carole H. Browner and afterword by Rayna Rapp. p. cm. Includes bibliograpical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8265-1819-4 (clot edition : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8265-1820-0 (pbk. edition : alk. paper) 1. Cildbirt—Cross-cultural studies. 2. Maternal ealt services—Cross-cultural studies. 3. Healt risk assessment— Cross-cultural studies. I. Fordyce, Lauren. II. Maraesa, Amínata. GN482.1.R57 2012 362.198´2—dc23 2011018130

For my parents, William and Patricia. —L.F.

To everyone wo as ever taken a risk on me. And to Afinatou, Safouane, and Douniya, wo ave no coice but to come along for te ride. —A.M.

Contents

Foreword Carole H. Browner

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Development of Discourses Surrounding Reproductive Risks Lauren Fordyce and Amínata Maraesa

Part I Complications in Measuring and Defining Risk

 1

 2

 3

Conceiving Risk in K’iche’ Maya Reproduction Mattew R. Dudgeon

Failing to See the Danger: Conceptions of Pregnancy and Care Practices among Mexican Immigrant Women in New York City Alysia Gálvez

The Vital Conjuncture of MethamphetamineInvolved Pregnancy: Objective Risks and Subjective Realities Alison B. Hamilton

Part II Biopolitical Narratives of Risk and Responsibility

 4

Birth and Blame: Guatemalan Midwives and Reproductive Risk Seila Cosminsky

ix

xiii

1

17

37

59

81

viii

Risk, Reproduction, and Narratives of Experience

5

6

7

“They Don’t Know Anything”: How Medical Authority Constructs Perceptions of Reproductive Risk among LowIncome Mothers in Mexico Vania Smit-Oka

Local Contours of Reproductive Risk and Responsibility in Rural Oaxaca Rebecca Howes-Miscel

New Countryside, New Family: The Discourses of Reproductive Risk in Postsocialist Rural China Qingyan Ma

Part III Struggles over the Embodiment of Reproductive Risk

8

9

10

11

Negotiating Risk and the Politics of Responsibility: Mothers and Young Child Health among Datoga Pastoralists in Northern Tanzania Alyson G. Young

Shifting Maternal Responsibilities and the Trajectory of Blame in Northern Ghana Aaron R. Denam

Imaging Maternal Responsibility: Prenatal Diagnosis and Ultrasound among Haitians in South Florida Lauren Fordyce

A Competition over Reproductive Authority: Prenatal Risk Assessment in Southern Belize Amínata Maraesa

Afterword Rayna Rapp

Contributors

Index

103

123

141

157

173

191

211

231

235

237

Foreword Carole H. Browner

Women ave been bearing and caring for cildren since te dawn of time. And as best we know, pregnancy and te act of giving birt ave always been recognized as times of vulnerability, uncertainty, and danger—as muc for pregnant women and new moters as for te larger groups to wic tey belong. It is for tis reason tat in contrast wit nonuman primates, wo give birt on teir own, te evolution of te uman species favored assisted reproduction.  Given tat disparate interests and values are inextricably linked to te repro- duction of every social group, te social relations of uman reproduction were potential sites for conflict in te earliest societies: between spouses, co-wives, and generations; between fertile women and te extended families, bands, tribes, vil- lages, neigboroods, communities, and nation-states to wic tey belonged.  he capters in Lauren Fordyce and Amínata Maraesa’s fascinating new col- lection focus mainly on one particular type of reproductive conflict: tat between pregnant women and moters and te nation-states in wic tey reside. hey reveal tat in a growing number of countries trougout te world today, women are expected—if not required—to participate in te biomedical ealt care system troug prenatal care regimens administered by Western-trained and biomedically certified providers, to give birt in state-sanctioned ospitals or clinics, and to ex- tend biomedical protocols of care to teir cildren.  hese capters also compellingly reveal tat altoug we antropologists tend to speak of biomedicine in egemonic terms, in fact, its penetration is quite vari- able and often ambivalently met. To some extent tis is because trougout te world today, many women do not consider pregnancy an illness and continue to ave confidence in teir bodies’ own ability to bear ealty cildren witout te need for state-sanctioned interventions. Yet, at te same time, growing numbers of women simply do not feel free to turn down te monitoring, measuring, and oter interventions tat are part of modern prenatal care, or to insist on giving birt in te location of teir coosing.Risk, Reproduction, and Narratives of Experi- enceseds new ligt on a troubling core aspect of medicalization processes, wic simultaneously render pregnant women more docile subjects even as tey are im- pelled to actively engage wit biomedicalized prenatal care regimes.  he capters vividly sow tat many pregnant women and moters do not necessarily wis to reject biomedical reproductive care out of and, but to select only tose aspects tey consider most valuable and avoid te rest. his means tat

ix