Bearing the weight of the world Exploring Maternal Embodiment

Overview

The maternal body is a site of contested dynamics of power, identity, experience, autonomy, occupation, and control. Representations of the maternal body can mis/represent the childbearing and mothering form variously, often as monstrous, idealized, limited, scrutinized, or occupied, whilst dominant discourses limit motherhood through social devaluation. The maternal body has long been a hypervisible artifact: at once bracketed out in the interest of elevating the contributions of sperm-carriers or fetal status; and regarded with hostility and suspicion as out of control. Such arguments are deployed to justify surveillance mechanisms, medical scrutiny, and expectation of self-discipline.

Reviews

"This complex book thoughtfully explores the nuances of women's relationships to their bodies and bodies' relationships, in turn, to their contexts and environments. A must-read for anyone who seeks to make sense of the intersections of emotion, embodiment and critical feminist thought." â€â€ÂMay Friedman, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Ryerson University  

"This collection of works is an example of how childbearing these days is receiving the scholarly attention it requires. It brings together fascinating topics and fresh perspectives from across disciplines and theoretical and methodological approaches." â€â€ÂSallie Han, SUNY Oneonta, author of Pregnancy in Practice: Expectation and Experience in the Contemporary United States and co-editor of The Anthropology of the Fetus: Biology, Culture, and Society.

Author Biography

Dr. Alys Einion is Associate Professor of Midwifery and Reproductive Health at Swansea University, Wales, UK. She gained her PhD from Aberystwyth University, studying women’s narratives, the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction and writing sexual violence. She is a prolific writer and an equality activist. She is currently working with narrative representations of pregnancy and childbirth, hypnobirthing and midwifery identity and self-storying. She is also a novelist. Dr. Jen Rinaldi is an Assistant Professor in the Legal Studies program at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. She earned a Doctoral degree in Critical Disability Studies at York University, where she researched how disability diagnostic technologies affect reproductive decision-making. Currently she engages with narrative and arts-based methodologies to deconstruct eating disorder recovery, and to story traumatic histories of institutionalization.