Pregnancy and breastfeeding

Week 16Sociology of Human Reproduction

Recap

• Considered the family as a social construction

• Look at motherhood and fatherhood

• Considered the concept of ‘good motherhood’

Outline

• Look at the issue of surveillance in pregnancies

• Consider the concept of foetal personhood

• Examine breastfeeding as a marker of ‘good motherhood’

Social construction of pregnancy

• Balsamo argues that 3 key areas of thinking about pregnancy

1. Women lose ownership of their bodies– Lose rights as an individual

2. The developing foetus has an ascendant right

– Should be considered first

3. Pregnancy is so ‘wondrous’ thatwomen should endure anything to experience it

– Discomfort, hardship, humiliation

• What do you think of these ideas? Do they seem to fit with your understandings?

Losing ownership

• Visibly pregnant women become the subject of intense surveillance

• Surveillance from medical

and health professionals

• Surveillance from family, friends and general public

Medical Surveillance

• Oakley argues that pregnancy has moved from a natural condition to a medical one

• Women expected to submit to:– Regular monitoring– Prenatal tests– Medical advice

• The uncertainly these provide lead to ‘tentative’ pregnancies

Medical Surveillance

• Women who do not comply with medical directives are seen as deviant

• Women are told that pregnancy

is a ‘natural function’

• ‘Normal’ pregnancy is only a retrospective label

Public surveillance

• Pregnant women are often seen as public property– Advice is given by family, friends and

complete strangers– Deviant behaviour can be censored

• Smoking and drinking particularly commented on

– Women are taught both to expect this, but to position it as less important than ‘medical’ knowledge

Public surveillance

‘Once you're pregnant people may give you unsolicited advice and opinions on your behaviour, diet, birth and feeding choices - some of them may be relatives and friends, but some may be complete strangers (…) Ask someone whose opinion you trust about what you've heard or read. Talk to your midwife at your next antenatal appointment, or if it's really bothering you, phone the clinic’

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/parenting/having_a_baby/pregnancy_advice.shtml

• Do women lose ownership of their bodies during pregnancy?

• If so, is this a problem?

Foetal imaging

• Surveillance of the developing foetus has intensive due to developments in imaging technologies– Xrays to ultrasound scanning– Scanning becoming routinised

• This has lead increasingly to changing perceptions of the

foetus and pregnancy

Foetal ascendancy?

• Increasingly the foetus is being considered a patient in its own right

• Foetal wellbeing being should take precedent over women’s wellbeing

• Women seen as a ‘risk’ to their developing foetus

Maternal/Foetus conflict

• Women’s behaviour can be sanctioned if pose a ‘risk’ to the foetus– Foetal Alcohol Syndrome– Forced caesarean sections

• Reaffirms the right of both medical and general public to police women’s behaviour

Maternal/Foetus conflict

• Conceptualising of potential conflict between women and foetus obscures the role of the health professional

• The ‘conflict’ is often a rejection of medical advice

• Focusing on the risk to the ‘innocent victim’ reaffirms both medical power though conceptualising women as potential abusers.

• Does the concept of foetal personhood undermine women as autonomous citizens?

Breastfeeding

• As well as pregnancy, infant feeding has become a symbol of ‘good’ motherhood

• ‘The Government is fully committed to the promotion of breastfeeding, which is accepted as the best form of nutrition for infants to ensure a good start in life’– http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Policyandguidance/

Healthandsocialcaretopics/Maternalandinfantnutrition/index.htm

• Similar to during pregnancy, women are expected to consider their babies welfare

above any concerns of their own.

Political feeding

• The majority of women in the UK feed their babies formula milk all or some of the time

• Yet this normal practice is officially sanctioned

• Women who choose not to breastfeed are potentially failures at motherhood

Choosing formula milk

• Lee found women choose formula milk for a variety of reasons:

– Breastfeeding was difficult – Easier to share workload– Practical for returning to work– Regained ‘ownership’ of their bodies

• Most of the reasons were positive rather than negative for women’s lives

Choosing formula milk

• Yet despite these positive reasons and the availability of safe alternatives many women felt guilty

• Concerns related to the public promotion of breastfeeding– Damaging babies health– Failing as mothers

• Breastfeeding mother is the symbol of good motherhood

• Many women choose formula milk as a way of gaining back control over their lives

• Should the nutritional benefits of breastfeeding take priority?

Conflicting agendas?

• Women do need support during pregnancy and breastfeeding– Campaigns to improve maternity services– Campaigns for the ‘right’ to breastfeed

• But can reinforce the pressure to conform to ‘good’ motherhood

Natural childbirth?

• In the late 20th century women campaigned for a return to ‘natural’ childbirth

• Achieved some success in challenging medical power– Birth plans

• But undermined women’s rightsto choose ‘unnatural’ options

• Reaffirmed pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding as purely biological ratherthan social conditions

‘Too posh to push’

• Rise in numbers of women choosing caesarean births

• Often publicly denounced• ‘Lifestyle’ reasons not acceptable• Cost to NHS

• Women are encouraged to consider what sort of birth they want, but only if that is the ‘natural’ option.

Summary

• Pregnancy is a public condition within which women are expected to submit to surveillance

• Growth of imaging technologies has lead to the idea of the foetus as a person

• Pregnancy and breastfeeding are constructed in relation to good motherhood’