Be the mother, not the daughter: Immigrant Chinese women, postpartum care knowledge, and mothering autonomy.
immigration
intergenerational relations
medical authority
motherhood
postpartum care
reproductive agency
Journal
Sociology of health & illness
ISSN: 1467-9566
Titre abrégé: Sociol Health Illn
Pays: England
ID NLM: 8205036
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
06 2023
06 2023
Historique:
received:
28
06
2022
accepted:
22
02
2023
medline:
20
6
2023
pubmed:
14
3
2023
entrez:
13
3
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Scholars have documented the transformation of modern motherhood, as mothering practices have been a target of medical knowledge that comes to define correct modes of conduct for women caring for their pregnant bodies, undergoing childbirth and childrearing. Such accounts usually set scientific knowledge and medical authority in opposition to women's autonomy. Drawing on the interviews with immigrant Chinese mothers in Canada, we offer a different account of knowledge and agency in new motherhood. These women's often-intense experiences of intergenerational care-giving associated with the practice of zuo yuezi reveal a more fluid relationship between medical authority and mothering agency. We find that the central tension during the postpartum experience lies in intergenerational and family relationships. In this context, new mothers draw on alternative sources of knowledge-and medical professionals are one such key source-to demonstrate within the family their competence to make care decisions for themselves and their babies. These women's use of medical knowledge to counter a familial and intergenerational authority complicates dominant accounts about medicalisation, demonstrating that women's relationship to medical knowledge and authority maybe be far more fluid and complex than a standard account of medicalisation and loss of women's agency would predict.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36912263
doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.13631
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1028-1045Informations de copyright
© 2023 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.
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