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A post-structuralist feminist analysis of electronic fetal monitoring in labour

Melamed, Anna

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Authors

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Anna Melamed Anna.Melamed@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in Midwifery



Abstract

Constant electronic fetal monitoring has become a ubiquitous part of birth management in most high-income countries, both reflecting and creating the social context. This article uses a post-structuralist feminist critique to show that the use of the cardiotocograph in birth reinforces and reflects the logic of the separate sovereign self. This creates a rupture in the intrinsic relationality of the mother–fetus and the mother–midwife on a philosophical and physiological level. The cardiotocograph in labour privileges the medical model, constrains women through wires and the imperative to ‘keep the trace’, takes everyone’s attention and gives midwives tasks other than caring for the woman. It externalises the fetus and gives it selfhood separate from the mother, to the extent that it can seem like the machine is keeping the baby alive. This undermines women’s and midwives’ subjective knowledge, relegating women to organic containers. A reimagining of birth that centres relationality would start by acknowledging the nature of the self as semi-permeable and the being/doing, both/and nature of the mother–placenta–fetus in pregnancy and birth. Intermittent auscultation of the fetal heart in labour is better able to centre the mother–placenta–fetus relation and the midwife–mother relation.

Citation

Melamed, A. (2023). A post-structuralist feminist analysis of electronic fetal monitoring in labour. British Journal of Midwifery, 31(3), 165-171. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2023.31.3.165

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 17, 2023
Online Publication Date Mar 2, 2023
Publication Date Mar 1, 2023
Deposit Date Mar 16, 2023
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal British Journal of Midwifery
Print ISSN 0969-4900
Electronic ISSN 2052-4307
Publisher MA Healthcare
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 31
Issue 3
Pages 165-171
DOI https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2023.31.3.165
Keywords Maternity; Midwifery; Cardiotocograph; Feminist; Fetal monitoring; Maternal-placental-fetal unit; Relationality
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10507525
Publisher URL https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/bjom.2023.31.3.165

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A post-structuralist feminist analysis of electronic fetal monitoring in labour (56 Kb)
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Copyright Statement
This is the authors accepted version of the article ‘Melamed, A. (2023). A post-structuralist feminist analysis of electronic fetal monitoring in labour. British Journal of Midwifery, 31(3), 165-171’.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2023.31.3.165

The final published version is available here: https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/bjom.2023.31.3.165


A post-structuralist feminist analysis of electronic fetal monitoring in labour (258 Kb)
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Licence
http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved

Publisher Licence URL
http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved

Copyright Statement
This is the authors accepted version of the article ‘Melamed, A. (2023). A post-structuralist feminist analysis of electronic fetal monitoring in labour. British Journal of Midwifery, 31(3), 165-171’.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2023.31.3.165

The final published version is available here: https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/bjom.2023.31.3.165




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