Fetal–Maternal Intra-action

Abstract

Extensively employed in reproductive science, the term fetal–maternal interface describes how maternal and fetal tissues interact in the womb to produce the transient placenta, purporting a theory of pregnancy where ‘mother’, ‘fetus’, and ‘placenta’ are already-separate entities. However, considerable scientific evidence supports a different theory, which is also elaborated in feminist and new materialist literatures. Informed by interviews with placenta scientists as well as secondary sources on placental immunology and the developmental origins of health and disease, I explore evidence not of interfacing during pregnancy, but of intra-action, or the mutual emergence of entities in simultaneous practices of differentiation and connection. I argue that attending to evidence that can be figured as intra-action enables us to recognize, account for, and attend to diffuse responsibilities for fetal–maternal outcomes that extend beyond mothers to the biosocial milieus of pregnancy. In reimaging the intra-action of placentas, a new understanding of what constitutes a ‘healthy pregnancy’ becomes possible.

Body Representations of Internal Pollution: The Risk Perception of the Circulation of Environmental Contaminants in Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women in Spain

“…Although some mothers have some doubts about the transmission of PTSs and the risks that this involves, most think that there is a process of connection and differentiation in the relationship between the mother and fetus. This scientific process, known as "placentation" [33] and the "placental economy" [32,34,35], places the biological contribution of the placenta at the center of the debate, and situates it as a relational organ through which functions and materials circulate between the mother and the fetus. The maternal-fetal exchange through the placenta becomes a central issue in immunological science [34], but also in regard to internal pollution from PTSs [44,45].…”

“…Therefore, the relationship between the mother and the fetus becomes a potentially complex and risky relationship throughout the reproductive process. Hence in recent years, feminist research focused on the placenta is taking a different approach to examining the physical link and the symbolism of the pregnant woman-fetus relationship [32][33][34][35].…”

Placental beginnings: Reconfiguring placental development and pregnancy loss in feminist theory

“…The placenta itself in this model, in other words, is already engaged in the process of negotiation; in this way, the placenta is not itself negotiated, not itself formed. More recent attention to the placenta has integrated the larger turn to attend to the matter of the body, as Fannin (2014) and Yoshizawa (2016) have both noted, citing the influences of new materialism on feminist theory (Barad, 2007;Frost, 2014Frost, , 2016. The development of a theory of the placenta that builds on the physical, or what Fannin calls the 'relatively under-theorised matter of the placenta' (2014: 290), has allowed for a much more rigorous examination of the interrelation of matter, reproduction, subjectivity and hospitality (Irigaray, 1985;Aristarkhova, 2012).…”

“…The non-teleological placenta Mid-twentieth-century researchers focused on the placenta's place as an immunological paradox: though it consists of cells from the blastocyst, the placenta is intimately involved in the immunological functions that allow the foetal-placental assemblage to continue to grow. Scholars like Yoshizawa (2016) and Irina Aristarkhova (2012) have written about the implications of this understanding of pregnancy as an immunological paradox. The legacy of these placenta studies leaves the organ (specifically trophoblast cells) as an invader, its capillaries entwining more and more deeply into the maternal artery structure within the uterus between eight and thirteen weeks.…”

“…Within feminist theory, the placenta -that fleshy, messy afterbirth -has operated as a model for a negotiated subjectivity that extends beyond the idea of simple, closed relations. Drawing on Luce Irigaray's canonical interview with He´le`ne Rouch in 'On the Maternal Order' (1991) about the 'placental economy', an increasing number of scholars have recently examined the placenta's potential for reimagining feminist forms of connectivity, subjectivity and relation (Oliver, 1995(Oliver, , 1998Maher, 2002;Schwab, 2007;Simms, 2009;Colls and Fannin, 2013;Fannin, 2014;Yoshizawa, 2016;Oele, 2017). For example, in an article published in this journal in 2014, Maria Fannin writes, '[the placental economy] is a model in which two living beings coexist in a kind of corporeal communication and negotiation.…”