Near Birth : Contested Values and the Work of Doulas

Dr. Andrea Lilly Ford

ISBN 10: 0520412907 / ISBN 13: 9780520412903

Published by University Of California Press Mär 2025, 2025

About this Item

Neuware - 'Pregnancy is a problem for autonomy, and yet, along with birth, it is frequently approached as an opportunity for self-actualization. In this study of doula-assisted birth in the Bay Area, Andrea Ford holds a mirror up to middle-class anxieties to reflect broader cultural tensions. Sensitive and erudite, Near Birth is a revelation.'--Heather Anne Paxson, Associate Dean for Faculty, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

Seller Inventory # 9780520412903

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Near Birth : Contested Values and the Work of Doulas
• Publisher: University Of California Press Mär 2025
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520412907
• ISBN 13: 9780520412903
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu

About this title

Synopsis

This insightful study of contemporary birthing uses the work of doulas to explore the questions raised near birth: What do we value, and how do we navigate those values when they are tangled in conflict?
 
Pregnancy, birthing, and infant care offer a microcosm of cultural debates. In this ethnography of childbearing in Northern California, Andrea Ford examines how people's birthing decisions and experiences relate to and construct the American ideal of the individual through the values of progress, experience, autonomy, equality, authenticity, immunity, and redemption.
 
Both an anthropologist and a doula who has observed and participated in dozens of births, Ford explores how parents, practitioners, activists, laws, technologies, media, and medical institutions shape the politics of care. Near Birth shows that questions about the best way to have a baby concern much more than health procedures. In the answers lie often-unacknowledged claims about what kinds of personhood matter and what ways of living are valued and valuable.

About the Author

Andrea Ford is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh and coeditor of Hormonal Theory: A Rebellious Glossary.