The prenatal care color line and Latina migrant motherhood
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2289173 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jessica P Cerdeña (0000-0003-1317-116X, Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP) University of Connecticut, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 325-340 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medical Anthropology Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0745-5194 • E-ISSN: 1548-1387 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/maq.12782 |
| PMID | 37354543 |
| OpenAlex | W4381849622 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 36 |
Drawing from ethnographic research with Latin American migrant mothers seeking prenatal care at a safety net clinic in southern Connecticut, I describe the racial dynamics of a medical hierarchy that situates White providers and nurses above Black and Brown medical assistants and patients, terming this the prenatal care color line. I characterize three segments of the prenatal care color line: through (1) onerous enrollment in prenatal care support that strips rights from migrant mothers; (2) differences in racialized embodiment that harden essentialist and stereotyped notions surrounding Latinx reproduction, making the experience of pregnancy and birth a process of race-making; and (3) obstetric racism manifest through both denying or delaying critical medical care to Latinx pregnant patients while also overmedicalizing their uncomplicated births. I argue that the presence of the prenatal care color line-in my study clinic as in other safety net clinics-permits the harsher racialization of Latinx birthers
Color line · Environmental health · Ethnography · Latin Americans · Political science · Population · Pregnancy · Prenatal care · Race (biology · Racialization · Racism · Sociology · White (mutation · Women of color · Gender Studies · Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions · Medicine · Migration, Health and Trauma · Nursing · Psychology · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
Reproductive Injustice
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pain
The Unequal Burden of Pain
Declines in Unintended Pregnancy in the United States, 2008–2011
Trends in Opioid Prescribing by Race/Ethnicity for Patients Seeking Care in US Emergency Departments
Maternal mortality rates in the United States, 2021
Long-term risks and benefits associated with cesarean delivery for mother, baby, and subsequent pregnancies
Borders of Belonging
Reproducing Race
Mexican Americans and the Question of Race
The Problem of the Color Line at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
The Latino Threat
Human guinea pigs? The history of the early oral contraceptive clinical trials
White supremacy culture and the assimilation trauma of medical training
Conceiving the New World Order
Physician Incentives and the Timing of Cesarean Sections
Everyday Race-Making
Health care experiences of pregnant, birthing and postnatal women of color at risk for preterm birth
Obstetric Violence as Reproductive Governance in the Dominican Republic
The White Space
Figures of the Future
Liminal Legality
Obstetric Racism
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |