Incubator imaginaries
For Anne Whitehead, the NICU incubator raises questions of precarity and resilience, and illuminates care as a layered series of interactions involving human and non-human agency.
Creating bonds with a baby expected to die at birth
This personal essay by Tamarin Norwood charts the months of late pregnancy following a terminal prenatal diagnosis, when an unexplained congenital condition led to oligohydramnios: the depletion of amniotic fluid necessary for foetal lung development.
The Silent Epidemic of Stillbirth: how to break the taboo?
Adinda van ’t Klooster reflects on a decade of making artworks that explore the stigma of stillbirth. This is the first in a series of essays addressing miscarriage, prematurity, stillbirth and neonatal loss, published by The Polyphony to coincide with Baby Loss Awareness week, which runs 9-15 October every year.
Imagining Abortion: Foetal Personhood and Leni Zumas’ Red Clocks (2018)
In her paper, presented at the Representing Women’s Health conference’s “Speculative Fiction” panel, Jo Rodgers explores foetal personhood through feminist New Materialism. In her 2018 novel Red Clocks, Leni Zumas imagines a near-future USA
How to Build an Artificial Womb
A chastity belt in Wellcome Collection’s Medicine Man exhibition caused legal scholar Claire Horn to reflect on her own objects of research.
On Plague and Pregnancy: Sara Read discusses her debut novel ‘The Gossips’ Choice’
In this post, associate editor Katrina Longhurst asks Sara Read about her debut novel, The Gossips’ Choice, and her experiences of writing fiction based on her research of Early Modern reproductive health.