Going Into Labour

Childbirth In Capitalism

Anna Fielder

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Pluto Press
20 November 2024

Feminism & feminist theory; Gender studies: women; Political activism; Birth control, contraception, family planning; Birthing methods

Series: Mapping Social Reproduction Theory

Childbirth is often assumed to be a natural process, and yet the choices we make, risks we face, and care available to us around birth are entirely bound up in the dynamics of the system we live in: capitalism. In fact, capitalist relations shape childbirth in ways that are largely unacknowledged, but with intensely inequitable and often traumatic effects.

Going into Labour fills a void in the literature around both childbirth and reproductive rights, presenting a Marxist analysis of the labour of childbirth. Through each chapter, former midwife Anna Fielder interrogates and unpacks some of the key features of contemporary childbirth, and ultimately situates birth as a key site of anti-capitalist struggle.

Fielder delves into the 'natural' birth movement; the increasing engagement of women of colour, working-class women, transgender and non-binary gendered people in the politics of birth; the pay and working conditions of caregivers such as midwives and nurses; and the sharp contrast between proliferating rates of caesarean section in the West, and a lack of access to the same (at times lifesaving) form of surgery elsewhere.

By: Anna Fielder
Imprint: Pluto Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm,
ISBN: 9780745349497
ISBN 10: 0745349498
Series: Mapping Social Reproduction Theory
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 20 November 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. Introduction 2. Stretch Marx 3. Technological Fetish in the Birth Chamber 4. Subsumed by Risk 5. The Gold Standard of Evidence 6. Freedom of Choice? 7. From the Womb of the Present...

Anna Fielder is currently a tutor at Massey University, and works as a researcher in the Centre for Midwifery and Women's Health Research at AUT (Auckland University of Technology). She has written and co-authored various publications which relate to pregnancy, birth, childhood or Marxism. She was employed as a midwife in the UK from 2003 to 2008.