Abstract:
Mothering begins at conception and is considered essential to womanhood, while
the physical challenges and joys of pregnancy are perceived as natural and inevitable.
How well this fits with a woman's lived experience of conception and pregnancy changes
her relationship to uncertainty and risk, technical and embodied expertise, and reflexivity
and resistance during pregnancy. Despite the focus in sociological research on technology
that separates the fetus from the mother, I found from my research strong contraindications
against a totalizing disembodiment and a continuing attention paid to older
uncertainties that have characterized pregnancy historically. Embodiment and technology
exist alongside each other in modern pregnancy, and mutually reinforce the expectation
of maternal-fetal bonding and the need for responsibly managing uncertainty. Pregnancy
as a lived physical state continues to be central to the notion of mothering and
womanhood.
