Gender and Childbearing Experiences: Revisiting O'Brien's Dialectics of Reproduction

Abstract

In her analysis of the dialectical structure of reproductive consciousness, Mary O'Brien argued that the physical labor involved in women's reproductive experiences affirms women's connections with their children and integration in the human species, whereas men's discontinuous experiences negate such connections and integration. Patriarchy enables the reconciliation of this negation for men by allowing them to claim ownership of the products of women's reproductive labor. Drawing on interview data with eighteen postpartum women, this paper re-examines O'Brien's central argument in conjunction with empirical data. The findings support O'Brien's assertions that (1) labor is viewed by some women as an essential component of childbearing and (2) childbearing results in a sense of greater connectedness and integration in the human species for some women. However, women also emphasized the importance of another element of childbearing—an indescribable, incomprehensible, experiential component—that is missing from O'Brien's analysis and much feminist literature on reproduction. This paper concludes by merging the current findings with O'Brien's analysis and discussing the implications in relation to men's roles in reproduction.