Governing pregnancy in the Global South: the case of post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

Critical feminist research on risk, pregnancy, and birth, mostly conducted in the Global North, has generally focussed on how risk responsibilises pregnant women. In this article, we provide a critical history of the development of maternal healthcare policy and practices in democratic South Africa as an illustration of the government of pregnancy in a Global South context. Using Michel Foucault’s governmentality framework, we show that the risk techniques deployed in the South African maternity clinic primarily aim to govern the conduct of healthcare workers rather than that of pregnant women. This includes a shift from traditional clinical judgement towards clinical risk management, working within a referral system and simplifying diagnostics through risk assessment. Adopting development as a rationality of government was a condition of possibility for this shift, resulting not in responsibilisation but rather the management of risk on behalf of the pregnant subject.