Pregnancy Dating Challenges: Technologies and Unequal Geographies of Abortion and Childbirth Care

Introduction

Pregnancy dating, or the assessment of the duration of the gestation, is considered the most important step in the management of any pregnancy for obstetric and neonatal care. It is on the estimated starting date of the pregnancy that the whole chain of care (e.g. prenatal screening, childbirth plans) is established and access to a variety of critical pregnancy, childbirth, and abortion options are regulated.

Variability in Pregnancy Dating

Although considered a standard procedure, pregnancy dating varies greatly in accuracy and methods, and across services and countries. It depends on technologies, resources, and skills of those involved. In this process, pregnant people’s embodied knowledge is often disregarded as unreliable.

Consequences of Current Practices

Despite bearing major and life-changing consequences, pregnancy dating remains largely unquestioned in the social sciences and in medical and public health literature. This has profound effects on how pregnancy has been theorized and empirically studied, as well as on legal provisions and clinical practices.

Project Overview

Through PregDaT, I will transform existing paradigms of understanding and studying pregnancy and reproduction by:

1. Unpacking the black box of pregnancy dating.
2. Exposing its socio-technical and political components of pregnancy time.
3. Exploring whether and how these generate unequal access to abortion and childbirth care for different groups in different locations.

Research Methodology

I will lead a multidisciplinary team employing qualitative methods from:

• STS (Science and Technology Studies)
• Anthropology
• Feminist legal studies
• Public health studies
• Visual design

We will investigate the process of pregnancy dating in 4 European countries, both in metropolitan areas and in peripheral locations.

Expected Outcomes

PregDaT will reshape scholarly understanding of pregnancy and pregnant subjectivities and temporalities, while intervening in the policies, practices, and regulations of pregnancy and abortion care.