Promoting and Involving (Future) Fathers in Pregnancy Medical Monitoring
Pregnancy is now part of a double process of medicalisation and sanitarisation that takes the form of surveillance and self-control of women’s bodies, and only women’s bodies. While medical and reproductive norms are based on an heterosexual sexuality model, the role and place of (future) fathers in...
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| Auteurs principaux: | , |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Français |
| Publié: |
2026
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | Pregnancy is now part of a double process of medicalisation and sanitarisation that takes the form of surveillance and self-control of women’s bodies, and only women’s bodies. While medical and reproductive norms are based on an heterosexual sexuality model, the role and place of (future) fathers in the monitoring of pregnancy is paradoxically undefined or insufficiently defined. Based on an ethnographic study conducted between fall 2021 and spring 2022 in a large maternity hospital in the east of the Île-de-France region, this article examines the representations and practices of maternity medical staff towards (future) fathers. Fathers are rarely present or visible, yet their “banal absence” does not raise questions among healthcare professionals, thus reinforcing the gendered division of pregnancy labour. |
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