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Accepted Paper:
It takes a more-than-human village: parenthood as a form of microbial management
Roberta Pala
(The University of Sydney)
Katherine Kenny
(The University of Sydney)
Microbiological research is highlighting the role of the maternal microbiome in the long-term health of both mothers and children. Drawing on interviews with parents of young children, we consider the more-than-human relations of care and ideas of parenthood of this post-Pasteurian trend.
Long abstract:
Recently there has been growing recognition of the productive and protective features of our microbial kin and the crucial role of 'commensal' microbes in supporting and sustaining health. Current microbiological and pharmacological literature is increasingly highlighting the role of maternal gut microbiomes in the long-term health of both mothers and children. According to this research, it quite literally takes a more-than-human village to raise healthy children. Our research has shown that this post-Pasteurian trend gives rise to new relations of care and understandings of parenthood that are, at once, newly collective and more-than-human - but also disciplinary in ways that position the maternal microbiome as a new site of scrutiny that disproportionately responsibilises and burdens mothers. Drawing on this work and our interviews with parents of young children in Australia, in this presentation I consider the ways in which parents navigate and make sense of their living together with microbes and the role this has on the management of health in the family. I reflect on the politics of this form of microbial care.