Bodies that Birth: Vitalizing Birth Politics

236 Pages·2018·0.995 MB·English

by  Rachelle Chadwick

BODIES THAT BIRTH
to come
Bodies that Birth puts birthing bodies at the center 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 dia-
logical 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 posi-
tions 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.
Rachelle Chadwick is NRF Research Career Fellow in the Gender Studies
Section of the School of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics
at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
WOMEN AND PSYCHOLOGY
Series Editor: Jane Ussher
Professor of Women’s Health Psychology, University of Western Sydney
This series brings together current theory and research on women and psychology.
Drawing on scholarship from a number of different areas of psychology, it bridges
the gap between abstract research and the reality of women’s lives by integrating
theory and practice, research and policy.
Each book addresses a ‘cutting edge’ issue of research, covering topics such as
postnatal depression and eating disorders, and addressing a wide range of theories
and methodologies.
The series provides accessible and concise accounts of key issues in the study
of women and psychology, and clearly demonstrates the centrality of psychology
debates within women’s studies or feminism.
Other titles in this series:
‘Adolescence’, Pregnancy and Abortion
Catriona I. Macleod
The Madness of Women
Jane M. Ussher
Fat Lives
Irmgard Tischner
Knowing Victims
Rebecca Stringer
The Psychological Development of Girls and Women
Second edition
Sheila Greene
Adopted Women and Biological Fathers
Elizabeth Hughes
BODIES THAT BIRTH
Vitalizing Birth Politics
Rachelle Chadwick
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
 2018 Rachelle Chadwick
The right of Rachelle Chadwick to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-12333-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-12334-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-64891-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Swales & Willis Ltd. Exeter, Devon, UK
For Barry Chadwick
January 2, 1939–July 21, 2015
My deepest inspiration in life and work.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments viii
List of abbreviations x
1 Opening 1
2 Birthing bodies: the politics of framing 24
3 Clockwork bodies 50
4 Risky bodies 73
5 Violated bodies 102
6 Resistant bodies 131
7 What matters? Vitalizing birth politics 170
8 Closing 200
References 204
Appendix 1: Research note 219
Appendix 2: Transcription notation 222
Index 223
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is the culmination of a long intellectual and personal journey, spanning
many years, academic departments, relationships and places. The journey was not
linear or neatly progressive but punctuated with loss, self-doubt and disappoint-
ment. These acknowledgments are written primarily for those, both human and
animal, that supported, loved and affirmed me through many difficult and chal-
lenging times.
First, I wish to thank and acknowledge the 64 women that shared their lives and
motherhood journeys with me—without them this book could not exist. Thank
you for your generosity of spirit and for gifting me with your precious stories.
Thank you also to those that facilitated the recruitment process. In particular I wish
to thank the staff and community counsellors at The Parent Centre and various
private midwives working in the greater Cape Town area for their assistance and
support.
I also want to thank the many teachers and mentors that crisscrossed through my
life and inspired me over the years in different ways (mostly without knowing it)
including: Tammy Shefer, Andy Dawes, Sally Swartz, Diane Cooper, Jane Bennett
and Trinh Minh-ha. Thank you for intellectual inspiration, collegial support and
for your discernable and inspiring commitment—to work, ideas and ethics. It has
not gone unnoticed.
The empirical work on which this book is based was conducted while I was
a PhD student in the Psychology Department and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the
Women’s Health Research Unit at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The book
was, however, written while based in the Gender Studies Section of the School of
African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics at UCT. Thank you to
my colleagues in the Gender Studies Section for providing a warm and supportive
‘home’ and allowing me the space I needed to write and to think.
Acknowledgments ix
Thank you to the Series Editor, Jane Ussher, for seeing merit in my project
early on and for encouraging me to write this book. Appreciation and thanks are
also extended to the anonymous reviewers who commented on early versions of
this book. Thank you also to the editing staff at Routledge for their work on the
book, kind assistance and patience!
I have been the fortunate recipient of generous funding and financial assistance
from a number of sources, including the A.W. Mellon Foundation, the National
Research Foundation (NRF) and the University of Cape Town. Without this sup-
port, this book would not have been written. In particular, I wish to acknowledge
and thank the NRF for the generous Research Career Advancement Fellowship
that was awarded to me in 2014. Thank you for showing faith in my research at
a difficult time and supporting my intellectual work and growth as an academic.
My heartfelt thanks to my mother for her endless support and love—and for the
hours she spent knitting baby jackets for several of the women who participated
in the project. It is your incredible strength and commitment as a mother that has
inspired my ongoing interest in women’s reproductive, mothering and care work.
The book is dedicated to my father who passed away on 21 July 2015. He was and
still is a powerful presence in my life, providing me with a strong moral and ethical
compass and a remarkable example of a life lived with integrity, courage, hope and
honesty. I looked to my father for inspiration when writing this book and I found
it. It was only through his example that I found the strength and willpower to get
up morning after morning at 5 a.m. to write.
I would like to thank and acknowledge Don—basically, for everything. Thank
you for being the most amazing and inspiring teacher—in your passion for ideas I
found a kindred spirit. You have inspired me in every possible way and this book
is a culmination not only of my work and thinking but of our joint journey. Thank
you for believing in my work and supporting me through injury, illness, death
and disappointment. I thank you—with all of me. Thank you also to our most
beloved animal companions—Lulu, Mimi, Stornie, Robbie, Picksy-Malinka and
others (some departed from this world) who have befriended me and warmed my
life over the years. Your loyalty, generosity, unconditional love and purity of spirit
give me hope and always manage to renew me when life becomes challenging or
painful.
Lastly, I wish to thank you, the reader, for engaging with my words and this
book. I hope that the stories and voices within it move you, make you think and
speak to you in productive ways. I apologize for any gaffes I have made or short-
comings in the book (which are undoubtedly there and entirely my own). My
sincere hope is, however, that this book becomes a kind of friend to you (as so
many have become for me) and finds a cozy spot on your shelf.