Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T18:00:20.048Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - How Should Childbirth Happen?

from Part II - Our Lives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2022

Daniel Scott Souleles
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School
Johan Gersel
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School
Morten Sørensen Thaning
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School
Get access

Summary

One feature of neoliberal market imperialism is the idea that no corner of life should be off limits from market-based competition and profit. Rather predictably, this sort of economic thinking has found its way into the provision of healthcare, even in the context of countries with socialized, nationalized healthcare such as the United Kingdom. Here, Shapiro examines what happens to care for mothers and children in the United Kingdom after the introduction of neoliberal reforms and compares it to Sweden, both ostensibly national systems, but differing in their degree of market creep. Shapiro makes use of a legal, human-rights-based frame of analysis to show that birth in Sweden is far better for human well-being than it is in the UK. In terms of the overarching theme of the book, the chapter is an example of the advantages of increased government planning against neoliberal orthodoxy. Her analysis also points to the alliance between neoliberal austerity policies and the defense of traditional conservative “family values.”

Type
Chapter
Information
People before Markets
An Alternative Casebook
, pp. 249 - 280
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adema, W. et al. 2015. “Paid parental leave: Lessons from OECD countries and selected U.S. states.” In OECD Social Employment and Migration Working Papers (Issue 172). Paris: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Akhavan, S. and Edge, D., 2012. “Foreign-born women’s experiences of community-based doulas in Sweden: A qualitative study.” Healthcare for Women International 33: 833848.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Akhavan, S. and Lundgren, I., 2012. “Midwives’ experiences of doula support for immigrant women in Sweden: A qualitative study.” Midwifery 28: 8085.Google Scholar
Anderson, C. 2019. “Where doulas calm nerves and bridge cultures during childbirth.” The New York Times, January 2, 2019. https://nyti.ms/2RlVYF5Google Scholar
Andersson, G. 2005. A Study on Policies and Practices in Selected Countries That Encourage Childbirth: The Case of Sweden.” Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbieri, P. and Bozzon, R., 2016. “Welfare, labour market deregulation and households’ poverty risks: An analysis of the risk of entering poverty at childbirth in different European welfare clusters.” Journal of European Social Policy 26 (2): 99123.Google Scholar
BBC. 2017. “Swedish midwives offer training for car births.” BBC News from Elsewhere, January 16, 2017. www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-38638416Google Scholar
Becker, G. S. 1991. A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennhold, K. 2010. “In Sweden, men can have it all.” The New York Times, June 9, 2010. www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/world/europe/10iht-sweden.html?_r=2&Google Scholar
Birthrights. 2013. Dignity in Childbirth: The Dignity Survey 2013: Women’s and Midwives’ Experiences of Dignity in UK Maternity Care. London: Birthrights.Google Scholar
Blyth, M. 2015. Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Branford, B. 2017. “Sweden reacts to anger at ‘risky births’ and maternity care shortages.” BBC, March 28, 2017. www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39418887Google Scholar
Brown, W. 2015. Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. Brooklyn: Zone Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, W. 2019. In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bustan, M. and Coker, L., 1994. “Maternal attitude towards pregnancy and the risk of neonatal death.” American Journal of Public Health 84 (3): 411414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, D. 2019. “Concerns over birthing options as NHS shuts midwife-led centres.” Guardian, February 11, 2019. www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/11/concerns-over-birthing-options-as-nhs-shuts-midwife-led-centres-englandGoogle Scholar
Cassidy, T. 2006. Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born. New York, NY: Grove Press.Google Scholar
Child Poverty Action Group, Church of England and Nuffield Foundation. 2021. “‘It feels as though my third child doesn’t matter’: The impact of the two-child limit after four years.” https://cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/policypost/It_feels_as_though_my_third_child_doesnt_matter.pdf.Google Scholar
Clark Callister, L. et al. 2003. “The pain of childbirth: Perceptions of culturally diverse women.” Pain Management Nursing 4 (4): 145154.Google Scholar
Collins, C. 2019. Making Motherhood Work. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Collins, C. 2020. “Two new moms return to work: One in Seattle, one in Stockholm.” Harvard Business Review, March 3, 2020. https://hbr.org/2020/03/two-new-moms-return-to-work-one-in-seattle-one-in-stockholm.Google Scholar
Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). 1981. “Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.” www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htmGoogle Scholar
Cook, K. and Loomis, C., 2012. “The impact of choice and control on women’s childbirth experiences.” The Journal of Perinatal Education 21 (3): 158168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooper, M. 2017. Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism. New York: Zone Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, M. 2020. “Neoliberalism’s Family Values: Welfare, Human Capital, and Kinship.” In Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, edited by Plehwe, D., Slobodian, Q., and Mirowski, P., 95119. London, New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Einion, Dr. A. 2017. “The medicalisation of childbirth.” In The Social Context of Birth, edited by Squire, C., 169180. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). 1950. “Council of Europe.” www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf.Google Scholar
Försäkringskassen. n.d. “Child allowance (English).” Accessed June 2, 2021. www.forsakringskassan.se/english/parents/when-the-child-is-born/child-allowance.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. 1988. “Day care: The problem.” National Review 40 (13): 14.Google Scholar
Goodman, P. 2018. “In Britain, austerity is changing everything.” The New York Times, May 28, 2018. https://nyti.ms/2J8ApU5Google Scholar
Gov.UK. 2021a. “Universal credit.” Accessed June 2, 2021. www.gov.uk/universal-credit.Google Scholar
Gov.UK. 2021b. “Families with more than 2 children: Claiming benefits.” Accessed June 2, 2021. www.gov.uk/guidance/claiming-benefits-for-2-or-more-children.Google Scholar
High Court Administrative Court. 2018. SC & Ors v. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions & Ors, Weekly Law Reports 5425.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. E. 2015. “Giving birth in different worlds.” The New Yorker, September 23, 2015. www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/giving-birth-in-different-worldsGoogle Scholar
Jordan, B. 1983. Birth in Four Cultures. Montreal and London: Eden Press.Google Scholar
Kitroeff, N. and Silver-Greenberg, J, 2019. “Pregnancy discrimination is rampant inside America’s biggest companies.) The New York Times, February 8, 2019. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/15/business/pregnancy-discrimination.htmlGoogle Scholar
Krapf, S. 2014. Public Childcare Provision and Fertility Behavior: A Comparison of Sweden and Germany. Opladen, Berlin, Toronto: Budrich UniPress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, S., Duvander, A., and Zarit, S.. 2016. “How can family policies reconcile fertility and women’s employment? Comparisons between South Korea and Sweden.” Asian Journal of Women’s Studies 22 (3): 269288.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, E., Macvarish, J., and Sheldon, S.. 2018. “The 1967 abortion act fifty years on: Abortion, medical authority and the law revisited.” Social Science and Medicine 212: 26–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mason, R. 2014. “Child benefit may be limited to two children, says Iain Duncan Smith.” Guardian, December 14, 2014. www.theguardian.com/society/2014/dec/14/child-benefit-limited-two-children-iain-duncan-smith.Google Scholar
McCourt, C. 2017. “Social support and childbirth.” In The Social Context of Birth, edited by Squire, C., 193212. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
McKinnon, S. 2005. Neo-Liberal Genetics: The Myths and Moral Tales of Evolutionary Psychology. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.Google Scholar
McLeish, J. and Redshaw, M.. 2017. “A qualitative study of volunteer doulas working alongside midwives at births in England: mothers’ and doulas’ experiences.” Midwifery 56: 5360.Google Scholar
Mellor, M. 2020. “How austerity ruined the UK’s health, in numbers.” WIRED UK, February 26, 2020. www.wired.co.uk/article/austerity-health-impacts-uk-life-expectancyGoogle Scholar
Moorhead, J. 2006. “Different planets.” Guardian, October 3, 2006. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2006/oct/03/healthandwellbeing.healthGoogle Scholar
Mueller, B. 2019. “What is austerity and how has it affected British Society?” The New York Times, February 25, 2019. www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/world/europe/britain-austerity-may-budget.htmlGoogle Scholar
Nordic Cooperation. 2020. “Pregnancy and childbirth in Sweden.” www.norden.org/en/info-norden/pregnancy-and-childbirth-swedenGoogle Scholar
Nordic Cooperation. n.d. “Child allowance in Sweden.” Accessed June 2, 2021. www.norden.org/en/info-norden/child-allowance-sweden.Google Scholar
Odent, M. 1984. Birth Reborn. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
OECD. 2020. “Is childcare affordable?” Policy Brief on Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, 1–13.Google Scholar
OECD Family Database. n.d. “PF2.1 Parental leave systems.” www.oecd.org/els/family/database.htmGoogle Scholar
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 2018. “Statement on visit to the United Kingdom, by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.” www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Poverty/EOM_GB_16Nov2018.pdf.Google Scholar
Oppenheim, M. 2019. “Women being plagued with debt due to gender pay gap, skyrocketing childcare costs and sexism, campaigners say.” The Independent, December 3, 2019. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/women-debt-stress-mental-health-credit-payday-loan-pay-gay-a9235621.htmlGoogle Scholar
Oppenheim, M. 2020. “There are hundreds more like me, says woman sacked for being pregnant.” The Independent, January 10, 2020. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pregnant-woman-sacked-discrimination-work-baby-tribunal-employment-a9278736.htmlGoogle Scholar
Pregnant Then Screwed. 2016. “I started to regret having my baby and I am just now trying to come to terms with my financial situation and pull myself back together.” Pregnant Then Screwed, May 3, 2016. https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/staging/4802/2016/05/03/3999-2/.Google Scholar
Pregnant Then Screwed. 2020. “Extending the 3 month time limit.” https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/extending-the-3-month-time-limit/.Google Scholar
Prochaska, E. 2020. “Human rights law and challenging dehumanisation in childbirth.” In Childbirth, Vulnerability and Law: Exploring Issues of Violence and Control, edited by Pickles, C. and Herring, J., 132139. New York: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Ralph, L. et al. 2019. “Self-reported physical health of women who did and did not terminate pregnancy after seeking abortion services: A cohort study.” Annals of Internal Medicine 171 (4): 238247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raphael, D., and Bryant, T., 2004. “The welfare state as a determinant of women’s health: support for women’s quality of life in Canada and four comparison nations.” Health Policy 68: 6379.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robertson, E. 2015. “‘To be taken seriously’: Women’s reflections on how migration and resettlement experiences influence their healthcare needs during childbearing in Sweden.” Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare 6 (2): 5965.Google Scholar
Rocca, C. et al. 2021. “Emotions over five years after denial of abortion in the United States: Contextualizing the effects of abortion denial on women’s health and lives.” Social Science and Medicine 269 (January): 19.Google Scholar
Saini, A. 2017. Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Saxonberg, S. 2013. “From defamilialization to degenderization: Toward a new welfare typology.” Social Policy and Administration 47(1): 2649.Google Scholar
Squire, C. 2017. “Women, poverty and childbirth.” In The Social Context of Birth, edited by Squire, C., 3351. Routledge: New York.Google Scholar
Stuckler, D. et al. 2017. “Austerity and health: the impact in the UK and Europe.” European Journal of Public Health 27 (4): 1821.Google Scholar
Sweden.se. 2020. “Family-friendly life the Swedish way.” https://sweden.se/society/family-friendly-life-the-swedish-wayGoogle Scholar
Williams, R. 1979. Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review. New York and London: New Left Books.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2019. “Maternal mortality ratio (modeled estimate, per 100,000 live births).” https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.MMRTGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization. 2018. “Intrapartum care for a positive childbirth experience.” WHO Recommendations. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Wrede, S. et al. 2008. “Equity and dignity in maternity care provision in Canada, Finland and Iceland.” Canadian Journal of Public Health 99 (2): 16S21.Google Scholar
Zylbersztejn, A. et al. 2018. “Child mortality in England compared with Sweden: a birth cohort study.” The Lancet (British Edition) 391(10134): 20082018.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×