Gestating bodies

Sensing Foetal Movement in First-Time Pregnancy

Bibliographic Data

ID2249461
AuthorsEmily Ro (0000-0002-5165-7649, Glasgow Centre for Population Health, corresponding author), Emily Ross (0000-0002-5964-6549, Centre for Population Health Sciences Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics The University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK)
Year2019
Volume41
Issue1
Pages95-111
Publication date2019-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.12809
PMID30171609
OpenAlexW2888952899
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited63

A large body of literature engages with personal accounts of pregnancy to illustrate the subjugation of women's embodied experience by practices of biomedicine. This article explores this issue through women's accounts of sensing initial foetal movement, drawn from qualitative interviews with 15 women resident in theUK. Participants depict this aspect of pregnant embodiment as ambiguous and indefinite, in contrast to clinical and popular representations of foetal movement. In highlighting the uncertainties characteristic of this corporeal event, the article adds to literature destabilising understandings of pregnant women's and foetal bodies as bounded and distinct. Ambiguous experiences of foetal movement arise in the context of sociocultural framings of pregnancy as 'at risk', and in turn, may be seen to contribute to these representations, with some participants articulating that uncertain sensations could provoke anxiety. In this article, perceptions of foetal movement are emphasised as valuable to women, and as inextricable from the social settings in which they emerge. This research has implications for sociological and feminist discussions of pregnancy, and work exploring the mutual shaping of corporeality and sociocultural contexts more widely

Aesthetics · Context (archaeology · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Movement (music · Pregnancy · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions · Psychology

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