Paper short abstract:

In this paper I will reflect on technocratic births trends in Italy and France. Moving from a research work carried out in both countries, I will explore the main factors leading to a different representation and use of caesarean section and epidural anesthesia in these two European contexts.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will reflect on technocratic births trends in Italy and France. Moving from a genealogical and ethnographic research work carried out in both countries, I will explore how, from the 1980s to nowadays, a number of factors (organization of medical work, cost-effective, money-making, perceived risks, legal matters, opposing feminist perspectives, etc.) have led to a different representation and use of caesarean section and epidural anesthesia.

On the one hand, I will underline to what extent medicalization rates are higher than those recommended by WHO in both countries, where the transition from home birth to hospital birth translated into a weakening of midwives’ work alongside women and birthing people.

On the other hand, I will investigate how medical interventions during labour and delivery present different traits in the two countries: caesarean section corresponds to the main birth technology birthing people and health professionals refer to in the Italian context while giving birth with epidural anesthesia appears as the hegemonic birth model in France. As we will see, this situation finds a present-day heritage in the current debate on obstetric violence, and its possible solutions, in these two European countries.