Reproductive Boundaries

Reproductive Boundaries examines the shifting boundaries of prenatal care in Switzerland, focusing on the Pregnancy Support Center's innovative psychosocial model. By redefining the territory of care, the Center extends its reach beyond the medical domain, exemplifying the reproductivization of life, the increasing organization of various life aspects through a reproductive lens. The book explores how this approach challenges traditional borders between medical and psychosocial care, offering an alternative to Switzerland's heavily medicalized reproductive care. Through ethnographic insights into reproductive talk, it reveals how psychosocial advisors shift the boundaries of reproductive care, balancing support with broader state goals of reproductive governance. Set against Switzerland's history of stratified reproductive policies, the study critically examines how psychosocial care reshapes the landscape of pregnancy, raising questions about surveillance and evolving gender roles. This thought-provoking work invites readers to reconsider the limits and possibilities of care in a fragmented society.

This book is also freely available online as an open access digital edition. (https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/media/wysiwyg/documents/Reproductive_Boundaries_PDF.pdf)

EDMÉE BALLIF is a medical anthropologist and sociologist with a focus on public health domains. She is currently serving as a Swiss National Science Foundation senior postdoctoral researcher at the Department for Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies (ISEK), University of Zurich, as an honorary research fellow in the Social Research Institute, University College London, and in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University.