Birth models in and between Italy and Senegal: a cross-cultural inquiry on the risks related to childbirth and birth technologies.
In Western societies, such as Italy, a positive representation of birth technologies as the main remedy to fight against the uncertainties of physiology and biological risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth has prevailed since the eighteenth century. This process has experienced a strengthen...
| Published in: | Health, Risk & Society Vol. 21; no. 3/4; pp. 207 - 226 |
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| Format: | research Journal Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Apr-Jun2019
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=138225997&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 138225997 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 13698575 35X jtl: Health, Risk & Society issn: 13698575 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr-Jun2019 vid: 21 iid: 3/4 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 138225997 138225997 138225997 10.1080/13698575.2019.1640352 138225997 ppf: 207 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Birth models in and between Italy and Senegal: a cross-cultural inquiry on the risks related to childbirth and birth technologies. aug: au: Quagliariello, Chiara affil: ANR Hypmedpro, EHESS, Paris, France sug: subj: Delivery, Obstetric Methods Delivery, Obstetric Adverse Effects Technology, Medical Adverse Effects Childbirth Risk Assessment Italy Risk Assessment Senegal Human Ethnological Research Attitude to Risk Conceptual Framework Female Women's Health Anthropology Italy Senegal Female ab: In Western societies, such as Italy, a positive representation of birth technologies as the main remedy to fight against the uncertainties of physiology and biological risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth has prevailed since the eighteenth century. This process has experienced a strengthening and an acceleration in the last fifty years. Although the (bio)medical discourse has replaced previous representations of childbirth-related risks, other risk categorizations, and search for remedies, have emerged and persist. Relying on the findings of a multi-sited ethnographic work focused on Italy, Senegal and the migratory experience from Senegal to Italy, this article investigates how the representation of childbirth-related risks changes in these three contexts. Working in a risk perception framework, I argue that birth technologies and medical interventions are understood by some groups of Italian women as a risk to be avoided compared to the possibility of experiencing a natural birth. At the same time, through an anthropological perspective, the article investigates how the relatively low level of medicalization in Senegal shapes a discourse on birth based on a very different understanding of health and risk. Unlike the biomedical discourse, childbirth-related risks in Senegal are only partially explained by the physical materiality of the birth process. Finally, stressing the strong interconnection between risk logics and material culture, the article analyses the multiple challenges connected to both the 'fascination' for technological births and the transfer of non-biomedical risk models from Senegal to Italy through the migratory process. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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