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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Enregistré dans:
Bibliografiske detaljer
Auteurs principaux: Rannoux, Julie, Saussey, Magalie
Format: Article ou chapitre numérique
Sprog:Français
Udgivet: 2026
Fag:
Online adgang:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Beskrivelse
Summary: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.