Maternal Agency and the Immunological Paradox of Pregnancy

Howes, Moira

doi:10.1007/1-4020-5216-2_13

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…I want to assess the fetal-maternal relationship in terms of intraaction by looking more closely at this immunological 'control'. To understand how scientists see the placenta as immunological, as well as why this is important for thinking critically about reproductive politics, it is first necessary to detour into the history of immunology, which shows a surprising confluence of politics with biology (see Cohen, 2009;Esposito, 2011;Haraway, 1991;Howes, 2007;A Martin, 2010;E Martin, 1990;Weasel, 2001). Originally a legal term referring to 'privileges and entitlements conferred on individuals or collectivities that exempt them from political obligations and responsibilities' (Cohen, 2009: 40), immunity prescribed conditions under which an individual could stand apart from a community founded on obligations of universal citizenship.…”

Section: Theories Of Placental Immunity: Difference Tolerancementioning

confidence: 99%

Fetal–Maternal Intra-action

Yoshizawa

2016

Body & Society

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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.

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Section: Theories Of Placental Immunity: Difference Tolerancementioning

confidence: 99%

Fetal–Maternal Intra-action

Yoshizawa

2016

Body & Society

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“…The presumption that this relationship is unmediated during pregnancy poses an important question: would not a richer account of the placental relation help us move away from accounts that presume dualism of self and other, or that presume (in both biological and phenomenological accounts) that pregnancy is a direct relation between-two, rather than a relation mediated by a material 'third'? As Howes (2008) notes, the conceptual resources for developing a new model of pregnancy are available in the feminist theoretical reflections on the maternal-fetal relation (see also Howes, 2007). Feminist theorists have suggested ways of articulating the relationship between mother and fetus as fluid, porous, and in opposition to any sharp distinction between maternal and fetal bodies.…”

Section: A Placental (Bio)ethics?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Placental relations

Fannin

2014

Feminist Theory

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The placenta's role as a mediating passage between bodies has been a conceptual resource for feminist theorists and philosophers interested in developing more nuanced explanations of the maternal-fetal relation, a relation that has tended to be identified with maternal and fetal bodies rather than with the placenta between them. I draw on efforts by philosopher Luce Irigaray and her readers to theorise placental relations as a model for the negotiation of differences. In her more recent work, Irigaray figures the placenta as an enveloping space of metaphorical enclosure. The placental relation in Irigaray's work thus offers insights into the temporal structure of her theory of becoming and can inform a more 'materialist' account of pregnancy. I then consider how placental relations are conceptual resources for re-imagining relations of self-other in pregnancy, and for addressing emergent ethical concerns over the transformation of the placenta into a scientific object.

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“…Developing fetus is not inspected by the immune system as something hazard and does not became an object for attack in spite of evident nonselfness, but is considered by maternal organism as an object for integration. In this connection active maternal immune recognition of the fetus is an important and necessary condition for normal development of pregnancy [Howes, 2007]. In opposite side, if "the rate of recognition" of embryo and fetus by maternal immune system is too low -it may be reason for pregnancy losses.…”

Section: Maternal Immunity and Pregnancymentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal Immunity, Pregnancy and Child's Health

Poletaev¹

2012

From Preconception to Postpartum

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Maternal Agency and the Immunological Paradox of Pregnancy

Cited by 13 publications

References 53 publications

Fetal–Maternal Intra-action

Fetal–Maternal Intra-action

Placental relations

Maternal Immunity, Pregnancy and Child's Health

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