Writing the history of the relations between medicine, gender and the body in the twentieth century: a way forward?

Gardey, Delphine

doi:10.4000/cliowgh.404

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…In the twentieth century, the interpretation of medical technology as a source of health problems emerged (Aronowitz, 2015;Welch, Schwartz, & Woloshin, 2011). Criticism of the substantial benefits provided by the technocratic model of birth has been coupled with the development of a 'counter-discourse' on risks and dangers related to childbirth, such as iatrogenic dangers produced by the growing use of medical technology (Davis-Floyd, 1992;Gardey, 2013). In this discourse, medical techniques promote additional troubles through further interventions (Morris, 2013;Sarda, 2011).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birth models in and between Italy and Senegal: a cross-cultural inquiry on the risks related to childbirth and birth technologies

Quagliariello

2019

Health, Risk & Society

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In Western societies, such as Italy, a positive representation of birth technologies as the main remedy to fight against the uncertainties of physiology and biological risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth has prevailed since the eighteenth century. This process has experienced a strengthening and an acceleration in the last fifty years. Although the (bio)medical discourse has replaced previous representations of childbirth-related risks, other risk categorizations, and search for remedies, have emerged and persist. Relying on the findings of a multi-sited ethnographic work focused on Italy, Senegal and the migratory experience from Senegal to Italy, this article investigates how the representation of childbirth-related risks changes in these three contexts. Working in a risk perception framework, I argue that birth technologies and medical interventions are understood by some groups of Italian women as a risk to be avoided compared to the possibility of experiencing a natural birth. At the same time, through an anthropological perspective, the article investigates how the relatively low level of medicalization in Senegal shapes a discourse on birth based on a very different understanding of health and risk. Unlike the biomedical discourse, childbirth-related risks in Senegal are only partially explained by the physical materiality of the birth process. Finally, stressing the strong interconnection between risk logics and material culture, the article analyses the multiple challenges connected to both the 'fascination' for technological births and the transfer of non-biomedical risk models from Senegal to Italy through the migratory process.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%