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Pregnancy Without Women: Lessons from Childbirth Classes

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Abstract

In this article, we examine motherhood “scripts,” or cultural discourses, taught in prenatal classes in the US South. Our analysis revealed that these prenatal classes, all taught in the early 2000s, appear to have supported a model of “intensive mothering” that undermined women’s autonomy and power in pregnancy. In addition, the content and messaging of these classes appears to have contributed to a societal tendency to make pregnant women, especially poor women and women of color, invisible while privileging the fetus as a person rater than as a potential person.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chicana/o Studies Department, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Natalia Deeb-Sossa

  2. University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Heather Kane

Authors
  1. Natalia Deeb-Sossa
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  2. Heather Kane
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Correspondence to Natalia Deeb-Sossa.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of Interest

Natalia Deeb-Sossa declares that she has no conflict of interest. Heather Kane declares that she has no conflict of interests.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Funding

This study was not funded by any grant or funding agency.

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Deeb-Sossa, N., Kane, H. Pregnancy Without Women: Lessons from Childbirth Classes. Sex Res Soc Policy 14, 380–392 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-016-0265-6

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