GRSJ224/ErasureOfThePregnantBody

In North American society when a woman is declared ‘pregnant’ she experiences erasure of her ‘self’ and body. The embryo/ fetus she carries becomes her defining factor and is simultaneously separated from her through scientific perspectives, social surveillance, the law and abortion politics. The woman’s body ceases to exist as her own body and becomes simply a ‘vessel for a new person’.

Erasure Through Scientific Perpectives

Ultrasound Technology

As are many other medical technologies, ultrasound (1960) was reinvented from the military use of radar technology. This technology produces images of internal fetal organs and cross- sections of both the fetal brain and fetal heart. Due to this technology, it is no longer the woman who confirms her pregnancy, but instead, it is technology. Today, most women do not announce or share the news of their pregnancy without the confirmation of an ultrasound or other scientific device such as a urine test and blood test. A woman’s experience during the initial pregnancy became less of a legitimate telling with the rise of medical technology.

Ultrasound changes the imagery of a fetus from its pre- technology state as opaque and concealed within the womb. The steps of fetal development are glossed over and a human like figure is represented instead. For example, the figure is formed long before the lungs are formed in the fetus, however the image of a human as a fetus is more visually understandable than the formation of lungs. The projection of a fetus onto a screen through ultrasound, arguably, releases the fetus from the confines of a woman’s womb and gives it independence. Since the fetus began being individualized, the concept of the pregnant woman and the fetus having conflicting interests became an intellectual possibility. This separated the fetus from the pregnant body and delegitimized the entwined relationship of the fetus and the pregnant body.

Since 1965, popular discourse has imaged the fetus on its own, independent from the pregnant woman. Lennart Nilsson was the starting point of this trend. His Life magazine cover story and photo-essay began the trend of fetal imagery. This spread decentered the pregnant woman from the story but the 1990 update to the spread completely erased her from the story due to the lack of maternal visuals or any visual connection to a woman at all. However, the fetus was given more likeness to a developed human as it was portrayed as an individual with a face, sexual orientation and physical action.

Feminist theorists have agreed that the deployments of these images of pregnancy alter the pregnant woman’s experience and the definitions of maternity to both the pregnant woman and society at large.

Obstetrics

The history of the practice and education of obstetrics shows that erasure was medically instilled. Looking at Williams Obstetrics written in 1904, this can be understood through the types of images chosen throughout the text. The text ‘s images included only 1% of those of the full female body, or 124 images out of 11,486 images. 13 editions were created of this book with the last one published in 1966. With each volume, the percentage of full female body images dropped. The books have an average of 87% of images containing no aspect of the female body. The remainder of the images in these books shows aspects of the female body only; leaving a dismembered and disconnected image.

Further, from the 1910’s to the 1950’s sterile draping was used to cover all aspects of a woman’s body during the birth process; except for the vagina. Though this has its roots in sanitization and health concerns, the picture of birth brings only the doctor, the baby and the vagina. The vagina becomes a ‘part’ representing a ‘whole’, pinning erasure in history.

Erasure Through Society and Law

Social interactions for the pregnant woman change drastically once pregnancy is announced. Sacrifice is generally expected on the part of the mother for the child and there is an expectation that the pregnancy as well as childbirth is to be the most fulfilling act the pregnant woman will ever be able to experience.

Pregnant women often report that they feel they are being treated like the property of the public. The public judges these women’s choices regarding health and career frequently as though the public shares the same interest of the fetus and the pregnant woman. This social surveillance can extend even to appearance and clothing choice.

In the US, may criminal cases are in the persecution of a pregnant woman’s conduct during her pregnancy. Though laws regarding drug and alcohol use during a pregnancy are instilled to ensure the health of the fetus, this takes away autonomy from the pregnant woman and she hands over more control of herself to the government than any other adult.When state legislatures regulate a pregnant woman’s ability to make medical decisions, they more often than not chose to constrain them. The laws enacted to do this, while claiming to bring attention to the subjects of drug and alcohol abuse and in some cases, domestic violence, do so using titles that erase the woman from the situation at hand.

Concerning domestic violence, the police generally assume that once armed with the knowledge that domestic violence can harm the fetus, pregnant women will be able to make appropriate changes to their living situation. The burden to end the violence is then placed on the pregnant woman, and not with the police. She no longer has law enforcement looking out for her, instead she must do this herself only to look after the fetus.

Bodily boundaries are commonly no longer respected as strangers think it is appropriate to touch the pregnant woman’s body without permission.

Erasure Through Abortion Politics and Law

The Abortion Debate

Abortion Laws

In the US since the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton states have constructed a series of laws, regulating and limiting the timing and the circumstances that a pregnant woman can have an abortion in. Out of the 50 states in the US, 46 allow the refusal of health care providers and institutions to participate in abortion. 11 states restrict coverage of abortion in private insurance plans. 17 states demand counseling before an abortion that includes discussing the links between breast cancer, the ability of a fetus to feel pain and the alleged mental health concerns of the woman post- abortion. These laws clearly promote anti abortion preferences and remove agency from the pregnant woman.

Gestational Limits are the most relative limits to this topic. 42 states do not allow abortions after a specified point in the pregnancy. Each state chooses the time of fetal viability and then declares a time where after which point the pregnant woman cannot have an abortion. It is at this point that total erasure happens. The pregnant woman’s interests are no longer at the forefront of her medical care or legal rights; instead, the fetus takes hold of these two segments.

Erasure Through Image Depiction

In cartoon and poster images regarding abortion, women, if represented at all, are faceless and voiceless. Images frequently show the fetus with full-grown features and more visibility and agency than the pregnant woman. The womb is also frequently mentioned without mentioning the pregnant woman. TheSocietyPages.Org has many examples of this erasure in imagery.

The Role of the Man

The disappearance of the pregnant body leaves both the male and female efforts at reproduction irrelevant. Most news articles and in fact, stories for children and adults alike, begin with ‘the egg’ and ‘the sperm’ with no mention of the holders of each.

In most cases in North America, the decision of abortion is left to the woman. In some cases the man either leaves the scene or more often, he takes on a passive silent role. The values that the fetus bring to the man are varied from the woman especially if the resulting child does not make it out of the womb. The embryo/ fetus is physically separated from the man. The man here experiences a form of erasure as well.

Suggestions for Change

Focusing on the placenta in terms of pregnancy can allow for the continuation of the above images and thoughts, but can re-enter the pregnant woman into the picture. The work of biologist Helene Rouch Schwab identifies that the placenta plays much more of a role than commonly understood as a nourishing apparatus. Though, after the 1960’s the placenta also was understood as the veil between the pregnant body and the fetus, there is room here for understanding it instead as a mechanism for connection. Biologically speaking, without the placenta, a connection between the two cannot be maintained. The placenta serves as a concept that both, separates, and connects the pregnant body and the fetus allowing for an easier transition into joining both, once again.

Footnotes

Brook, Barbara. Feminist Perspectives on the Body. New York: Routledge, 1999. EBook. Farquhar, Dion. The Other Machine. New York: Routledge, 1996. EBook.

Mullin, Amy. Reconceiving Pregnancy and Childcare. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. EBook. Farquhar, Dion. The Other Machine. New York: Routledge, 1996. EBook. Farquhar, Dion. The Other Machine. New York: Routledge, 1996. EBook. Maher, JaneMaree. “Toward a Placental Body”. Feminist Review 72. Drugs (2002): 95- 107. Electronic Lennart Nilson Photograghy. www.LennartNilsson.com. ND. WEB. Feb 1 2015. Maher, JaneMaree. “Toward a Placental Body”. Feminist Review 72. Drugs (2002): 95- 107. Electronic Smith. A. Sheila. “Marginalizing Women: Images of Pregnancy in Williams Obstetrics”. The Journal of Prenatal Education 9.2 (2000). Electronic Smith. A. Sheila. “Marginalizing Women: Images of Pregnancy in Williams Obstetrics”. The Journal of Prenatal Education 9.2 (2000). Electronic Mullin, Amy. Reconceiving Pregnancy and Childcare. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. EBook. Mullin, Amy. Reconceiving Pregnancy and Childcare. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. EBook. Roth, Rachel. Making Women Pay: The Hidden Costs of Fetal Rights. New York: Cornell University Press, 2000. EBook. Roth, Rachel. Making Women Pay: The Hidden Costs of Fetal Rights. New York: Cornell University Press, 2000. EBook. Mullin, Amy. Reconceiving Pregnancy and Childcare. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. EBook. Guttmacher Institute. www.GutMacher.org. 1996. WEB. Feb 1. Guttmacher Institute. www.GutMacher.org. 1996. WEB. Feb 1. Farquhar, Dion. The Other Machine. New York: Routledge, 1996. EBook. Zoja, Eva Pattis. Abortion: Loss and Renewal in the Search for Identify. Como: RED, 1995. EBook. Zoja, Eva Pattis. Abortion: Loss and Renewal in the Search for Identify. Como: RED, 1995. EBook. Mullin, Amy. Reconceiving Pregnancy and Childcare. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. EBook.