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- Convenors:
-
Chiara Quagliariello
(Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales)
Veronica Miranda (Santa Clara University)
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- Chairs:
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Lydia Z. Dixon
(California State University Channel Islands)
Mounia El Kotni (Cermes3)
- Discussant:
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Mounia El Kotni
(Cermes3)
Short Abstract:
This panel focuses on how gender, racial and social inequalities impact postpartum experiences globally. We want to encourage conversations across sites and methods, to start building an anthropology of postpartum by engaging with a range of themes, theoretical entanglements, and connections.
Long Abstract:
Medically, the postpartum period is defined as lasting from 6 to 8 weeks after childbirth. However, the mental and physical impacts of pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum extend well beyond this few weeks window. These issues are often largely untreated by public health policies and are also still under-explored in the anthropology of reproduction, despite being first raised decades ago (Raphael, 1975, Jordan, 1978).
This panel focuses on how gender, racial and social inequalities impact postpartum experiences in different contexts. We want to encourage conversations across sites and methods, to start building an anthropology of the “fourth trimester” by engaging with a range of themes, theoretical entanglements, and connections. We welcome proposals that raise novel questions and build bridges to broader conversations in the anthropology of reproduction. Some of the topics (but not limited to) we would like to explore are:
Representations and social expectations surrounding the postpartum period (mother's rest, breastfeeding, family planning, childcare): what is the impact of these expectations on the physical and psychological health and well-being of mothers?
Access to postpartum care: what kind of care is provided, and what are the access conditions (social coverage, immigration status, professional status, etc.)? What support networks exist beyond the healthcare system (patient support networks, family networks, home care services)?
The experiences of mothers as patients and beyond: how does the return to professional life affect the mothers' health? How does parental responsibility impact psychological well-being?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 18 July, 2024, -Mounia El Kotni (Cermes3) Chiara Quagliariello (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) Veronica Miranda (Santa Clara University) Lydia Z. Dixon (California State University Channel Islands)
Paper short abstract:
Through collaborative anthropological and community work we explore 1) Postpartum bodies and their racialization process; 2) The social needs during the postpartum period and the nuanced role of community networks; 3) Community-informed solutions to address the diverse needs of parents.
Paper long abstract:
In the 1970s, anthropologist Dana Raphaël brought attention to the concept of "matrescence" — a term crafted as a counterpart to adolescence, aiming to capture the transformation of a woman into a mother. However, the field of reproductive anthropology has, until now, demonstrated limited interest in the social dynamics unfolding in the aftermath of childbirth.
In December 2023, a group of anthropological scholars and community organizers convened in Paris, France, to collectively explore postpartum experiences across diverse settings, including California, Haiti, France, Italy, and India. This dialogue sought to cultivate a comprehensive understanding of global postpartum dynamics, revealing both shared elements and differences in postpartum care. It underscored the occasionally ambivalent role of social networks, the insufficient support for mothers and parents, the repercussions of medical mistreatment on the postpartum experience, and the influence of government-led policies.
In this presentation, we extend our collective inquiry by highlighting three key areas of focus in our work: 1) The mediation of postpartum bodies through the racialization process; 2) The social needs during the postpartum period and the nuanced role of community networks; 3) Community-informed solutions to address the diverse needs of parents.
Victoria Gallion (CY Cergy Paris Université)
Paper short abstract:
Amongst indigenous peoples of the Andes, the postpartum period takes a lot of patience and precaution. Women are advised by traditional midwives to strictly rest and avoid air and cold by staying at home. It contrasts with Western medicine and public hospitals where women must recover quickly.
Paper long abstract:
In the Andean world, the postpartum period is crucial for the new mother's recovery. The postpartum period is generally considered to last 40 days.
Right after childbirth, the woman's body is seen as open and dislocated (LA RIVA GONZALEZ, 2000). The mother and her baby are particularly prone to illness and must be extra vigilant. They have to follow a special diet, be well surrounded and protect themselves from air and cold. During the first 8 days after giving birth, she must absolutely avoid going out and physical exertion. The newborn is often wrapped in a cloth called aguayo or chumpi until he no longer feels the need to and is strong enough to be on his own.
Those practices contrast with public hospitals' care system built on the European obstetrics model in the 19th century. At Lima's maternity ward created in 1826 for example, the medical staff is proud to be able to let women go home quickly the day after birth as proof of modernization and advances in medicine. Postpartum care is not really taken into account especially when the birth was "easy".
Those differences can be explained by the influence of European obstetrics where the woman must recover quickly, the ignorance of the needs of parturients due to their class and their race but also because of understaffing and poor investment in healthcare. What can the postpartum period experienced by Andean indigenous women tell us about the peruvian healthcare system on a global scale ?
Hope Bastian (Wheaton College (MA))
Paper short abstract:
Networked Matrescence highlights mothers’ embeddedness in biomedical & mobile internet assemblages, networks that help doula them (or not) through the complex transitions to motherhood, shaping practices & subjectivity, infrastructures & relationships, through pregnancy, birth, early parenthood.
Paper long abstract:
Anthropologist Dana Raphael described Doulas, those who most frequently interact with the new mother during the sensitive time of Matrescence, or “mother-becoming”, as “the most influential and supportive in assisting her to accept and acquire her new identity” (68). Since the arrival of mobile internet in December 2018, semi-private WhatsApp groups have become fundamental to experiences of matrescence in the social and physical isolation of early motherhood in Cuba. Introducing the concept of “Networked Matrescence”, I describe how online networking practices shape contemporary matrescence, allowing the “dis-embodied” and deterritorialized formation of emergent identities of Cuban motherhood and the creation of alternative care infrastructures to support breastfeeding, a form of collective digital doula-ing through postpartum life. Through collaborative ethnography, I describe young women’s networked health activism in Cuba, a novel response to their/our everyday experiences as mothers and patients in a post-colonial socialist state constrained and exhausted by the continued pressures of US imperialism on national sovereignty. Online communities created and maintained by Cuban mothers are key sites for understanding the negotiation of mutual expectations of care and surveillance, and constructions of risk by mothers and a public health system politically invested in the (re)production of spectacular global health metrics. This ethnography of Cuban Networked Matrescence shows how digital ethnography illuminates the intimate global networks of relations that sustain – and challenge – women’s health and everyday social reproduction of households, nations, and expansive social justice projects like the Cuban Revolution.
Marie Lafon-Bach (UPEC)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation aims to highlight how digital platforms shapes postpartum support in France. By drawing upon a corpus of 500 publications gathered from five major social media platforms, I propose a mapping of online actors and their discourses on postpartum care.
Paper long abstract:
In France, over the past two decades, the term “postpartum” has gained significant public attention. While this issue was considered well before the advent of social media (Vozari, 2021), a dual process is now emerging: as current healthcare plans are being criticized, many new paths are blossoming online : a plethora of individuals offers to provide support for postpartum period. This presentation aims to discuss the relevance of surveying digital discourses related to post-partum support. Relying on data gathered from my doctoral research on discursive areas (Ollivier-Yaniv, 2017). My focus is two-fold: firstly, I intend to show that considering online discourse can make a valuable contribution to this field of research. Secondly, I raise the methodological question on how to implement this study. I intend to do so by relying on preliminary data obtained from the mapping of five social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Facebook) (Severo, Venturini, 2016). The data consists of a corpus of the first 100 publications on each plateforms selected by looking up the expression “postpartum support”. This corpus of 500 publications (2014 until today) allows me to conduct an analysis of the discourse of different categories of actors, as well as the relationship between each other by using network analysis performed by the Gephi software. Textometric analysis will then complete this first round of observation by revealing the thematic structure of the discourses. While algorithmic bias doesn’t allow full representativity, this corpus still highlights the major trends of the online debates revolving around postpartum.
Mae Krause (Santa Clara University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses how obstetric violence continues beyond labor and delivery by looking specifically at the experiences and health of postpartum people in San Jose, California. More specifically, this research addresses neglect and erasure.
Paper long abstract:
The postpartum period is a time of immense physical, emotional, and mental change, and for many postpartum individuals, it comes with many physiological challenges. Yet, postpartum care is often limited, especially for low-income individuals and those without health insurance. For many, education provided directly after birth is all the health information they will receive. Thus, this research analyzes the hospital education provided to postpartum individuals in person and online. Research was focused on various hospitals in the area of San Jose, California, all of which have labor and delivery wards. The online resources of several hospitals were investigated, and this data was supplemented by data from interviews with medical professionals that interact with postpartum patients at the hospitals, and the physical resources provided after birth, including posters and brochures. The limited information available online focuses on breastfeeding and infant care, not on the physiological conditions that may affect the postpartum individual, including, postpartum depression, hemorrhage, or chronic pain. Scholars have discussed the ways in which obstetric violence, which is mistreatment and abuse in childbirth, usually along lines of race, class, and gender, harms the birthing experience and birthing people. However, this analysis finds that obstetric violence continues beyond labor, and is seen through the way that postpartum individuals are neglected, and their experiences and needs are erased. By understanding the way birthing people are marginalized during and after birth, more progress can be made towards a medical system that prioritizes education and inclusion of birthing people, not just their infants.