Reproductive norms: stigma and disruptions in family-building
In the final of our ‘Recalibrating Stigma’ mini-takeover, Caroline Law and Harriet Cooper explores how stigma operates in relation to reproductive norms.
The ‘Headless Goddess’ in Indian Iconography and Reproductive Health
Surjavo Sen Gupta discusses the cultural depiction of Lajjā Gaurī as a cultural antecedent to the role of male-female compatibility in Fertility Studies.
‘Not Quite Ready’: Scotland and The Pill, 1961-1970
Using primary documents from Scottish archives, Alexandra Cowie traces the history of contraception and reproductive health in 1960s Scotland
Reproductive Trauma Narratives from Rural India
Manali Karmakar draws on the illness narratives of three women from rural India to showcase how caste, gender, and sociocultural and geographical location strongly shape reproductive health and well-being.
History of Reproductive Rights: from Population Control to Reproductive Justice
Caroline Rusterholz offers a historical perspective on reproductive rights that reveals the key role activism has always played in this area.
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.