(Women and Psychology) 1st Edition
by Rachelle Chadwick (Author)
Bodies that Birth puts
birthing bodies at the centre of questions about contemporary birth
politics, power, and agency. Arguing that the fleshy and embodied
aspects of birth have been largely silenced in social science
scholarship, Rachelle Chadwick uses an array of birth stories, from
diverse race-class demographics, to explore the narrative entanglements
between flesh, power, and sociomateriality in relation to birth.
Adopting
a unique theoretical framework incorporating new materialism, feminist
theory, and a Foucauldian ‘analytics of power’, the book aims to trace
and trouble taken-for-granted assumptions about birthing bodies. Through
a diffractive and dialogical approach, the analysis highlights the
interplay between corporeality, power, and ideologies in the making of
birth narratives across a range of intersectional differences. The book
shows that there is no singular birthing body apart from sociomaterial
relations of power. Instead, birthing bodies are uncertain zones or
unpredictable assortments of physiology, flesh, sociomateriality,
discourse, and affective flows. At the same time, birthing bodies are
located within intra-acting fields of power relations, including
biomedicine, racialized patriarchy, socioeconomics, and geopolitics.
Bodies that Birth
brings the voices of women from different sociomaterial positions into
conversation. Ultimately, the book explores how attending to birthing
bodies can vitalize global birth politics by listening to what matters
to women in relation to birth. This is fascinating reading for
researchers, academics, and students from across the social sciences.
