CO SCI 136 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Caesarean Section, Fetal Distress, Complications Of Pregnancy
Document Summary
Multiplying obstetrics: techniques of surveillance and forms of coordination. General model of modern obstetrics, based upon a careful analysis of theories, practices, and debates in this discipline. Throughout a series of technical innovations (fetal monitoring and ultrasound) the fetus has been constituted as a patient for the obstetrician who henceforth gained authority upon the other actors involved (midwives, parents, etc. ) The exclusive relationship between woman and midwife (traditional organization of care) --> replaced by a triangular relationship (obstetrician, parents, and fetus). These technical innovations have had other impacts as well: modified the nature of surveillance. Pregnancy and childbirth are medically redefined as a process which needs continuous surveillance or monitoring: foucauldian analysis. Monitoring techniques (through objectivation they produce) function as a sort of. In which individual and collective work is rendered visible for the professionals themselves. Concern baby-to-be and its mother; but also exerted over professionals;
