Pregnancy in practice expectation and experience in the contemporary US / Sallie Han.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Han, Sallie, author.

Series:

Fertility, reproduction, and sexuality ; v. 25.

Fertility, reproduction, and sexuality ; volume 25

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pregnancy--United States.

Pregnancy.

Fertility--United States.

Fertility.

Ethnology--United States.

Ethnology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York Berghahn Books, 2013.

Summary:

Babies are not simply born—they are made through cultural and social practices. Based on rich empirical work, this book examines the everyday experiences that mark pregnancy in the US today, such as reading pregnancy advice books, showing ultrasound “baby pictures” to friends and co-workers, and decorating the nursery in anticipation of the new arrival. These ordinary practices of pregnancy, the author argues, are significant and revealing creative activities that produce babies. They are the activities through which babies are made important and meaningful in the lives of the women and men awaiting the child’s birth. This book brings into focus a topic that has been overlooked in the scholarship on reproduction and will be of interest to professionals and expectant parents alike.

Contents:

Pregnancy as a literacy event

Protoconversations of the heart : belly talk

Seeing like a family, looking like a baby : fetal ultrasound imaging

"This body is no longer my own"

Making rooms for babies : houses, nurseries, and baby things

Consumption and communitas : baby showers.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed October 22, 2013).

ISBN:

1-80758-438-0

1-78238-792-7

0-85745-988-0

OCLC:

861538595