Giving Birth in a ‘Hostile Environment’

Abstract

In 2012, the UK government’s Home Office, under the leadership of then Home Office Secretary Theresa May, outlined a series of policies aimed, in May’s words, at creating a ‘really hostile environment for illegal migration’. Formalized in subsequent pieces of legislation on immigration in 2014 and 2016, these policies sought restrict migrants’ ability to access education, rental accommodation, driving licenses, bank accounts, and healthcare. Although healthcare during pregnancy is defined by the UK government as ‘immediately necessary’ and therefore should never be withheld, fear of being asked for payment upfront has meant women without legal right to remain may delay or avoid accessing needed healthcare. This chapter explores activist responses to hostile environment policies related to maternal care in the UK. It focuses on local projects aimed at resisting the Hostile Environment policy and the vulnerability faced by pregnant and birthing women navigating ‘hostile healthcare’ during their pregnancies and births. Linking the disciplining of pregnant bodies to broader anxieties over migration and citizenship, this chapter considers how the practices of accompaniment through the healthcare system by midwives, doulas, birth companions, and activists bring together the radical ethos of reproductive justice movements and the embodied politics of birth activism.