Beyond the Birth Wars: Diverse Assemblages of Care

Kelly Dombroski
Katharine McKinnon
Stephen Healy

Childbirth has been transformed by increased use of life-saving medical technologies, greater understanding of the complex interplay between care environments, emotional states, complex biophysical processes and ongoing physical and mental health for babies and mothers. Maternity care has also been subject to broader changes in healthcare economies that reposition mothers as rational consumers in a health care marketplace. Drawing on empirical research we identify problems with imagining maternity care and the cared-for subject via 'choice' alone, and explore how the diverse assemblages that converge in birthing spaces could be better attended to through alternative 'logics of care' (Mol, 2008).

Suggested citation

Dombroski, Kelly, Katharine Mckinnon, and Stephen Healy. "Beyond the birth wars: Diverse assemblages of care." New Zealand Geographer 72, no. 3 (2016): 230-239.

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