In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Reproductive and Maternal Health in Anthropology

  • Introduction
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Anthropology Reproductive and Maternal Health in Anthropology
by
Maya Unnithan
  • LAST REVIEWED: 26 May 2021
  • LAST MODIFIED: 26 May 2021
  • DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766567-0266

Introduction

In anthropology, the subject of maternal health is diffused within the broader areas of the anthropology of reproduction, fertility, and reproductive health. As a topic it is constituted by work at the intersections of anthropology, public health, feminist studies (covering topics on reproductive choice and autonomy, for instance), and development studies (with its focus on the issues of maternal and infant mortality). The citations presented here are grouped into six topic categories as linked to maternal health, each with further subtopics, on childbirth and maternal/reproductive health, fertility and infertility in maternal health, reproductive technologies and maternal health, family planning and maternal health, abortion, and maternal-health policy and human rights. The topics have been selected on the basis of historical work in these areas and in terms of new directions presented by more-recent work. Wherever possible, indigenous anthropological expertise stemming from local authors in the topic areas has been included.

Childbirth, Mortality, and Health

The topic of birth is centrally linked to the anthropological concept of social reproduction in that it focuses on how relationships are created through and around birth and maternal care and how these are made socially and culturally meaningful. Ethnographies on birth pay attention to the experiences of women but also focus on birth attendants. Based in diverse contexts, they not only focus on the actual time of birth but are set in a wider birth-related trajectory of pregnancy, prenatal, antenatal, delivery, and postnatal periods, as well as the reproductive life course (i.e., from the stage of sexual and reproductive maturation onward, often defined from menarche to menopause in women). Studies range from a focus on the quotidian experiences of pregnancy to the embodied suffering of those undergoing challenging pregnancies with implications for their physical and mental well-being. A fundamental concept developed in the 1990s by anthropologists is the notion of “stratified reproduction” as described by Shellee Colen and developed in Ginsburg and Rapp 1995 (cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Anthologies), which demonstrates how childbearing is linked with the production and experience of wider forms of inequality within social groups. More-recent work examines the inequalities associated with birth and health through the lens of modernity, as in Van Hollen 2003 (cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Monographs) as well as Ram and Jolly 1998 (cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Anthologies), and in terms of global capitalism and the state in contributions to Browner and Sargent 2011 (cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Anthologies). Other recent work on maternal health inequalities has been in the context of poverty and migration, which appears in various works: Goldade 2011 (cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Articles/Chapters), Gálvez 2011 (cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Monographs), and Unnithan-Kumar and Khanna 2015 (cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Anthologies). Challenging the underlying assumptions in public health discourse on risk and safety (Chapman 2010, cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Monographs; Fordyce and Maraësa 2012, cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Anthologies; Waggoner 2017, cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Monographs), ethnographic work has also examined the moral and ideological context of pregnancy, birth, and reproductive health (Russell 2001, cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Articles/Chapters). Standards for “safety” during childbirth focus on the knowledge, skills, and expertise of birth attendants, who are often a target for blame (Pinto 2008, cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Monographs; Cosminsky 2012, cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Articles/Chapters) yet are also critical to maternal-health interventions (Turinawe, et al. 2016, cited under Childbirth, Mortality, and Health: Articles/Chapters).

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