Abstract
This article addresses the short-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and hints at its potential long-term effects. Though many might want it to, birth does not stop during a pandemic. In emergency times, birth practices need to be adjusted to safeguard the health of birthing mothers, babies, birth providers, and the general population. In Bologna, Italy, one of the emergency measures employed by local hospitals in response to COVID-19 was to suspend women’s right to be accompanied by a person of their choice for the whole duration of labor and childbirth. In this work, we look at how this measure was disputed by the local activist birth community. Through the analysis of a social campaign empowered by Voci di Nascita—an association of parents, birth providers, and activists—we examine how social actors negotiated the balance between public health and reproductive rights in a time of crisis. We argue that this process unveils several structural issues that characterize maternity care at the local and national levels, including the (re)medicalization of birth, the discourse on risk and safety, the internal fragmentation of Italian midwifery, and the fragility of reproductive rights. The Covidian experience forced the reshaping of the birth carepath during the peak of the emergency. We suggest that it also offered an opportunity to rethink how birth is conceived, experienced, and accompanied in times of unprecedented global uncertainty—and beyond.
Highlights
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Gender, Sex and Sexualities, a section of the journal Frontiers in Sociology
Through the analysis of a social campaign empowered by Voci di Nascita—an association of parents, birth providers, and activists—we examine how social actors negotiated the balance between public health and reproductive rights in a time of crisis
We argue that this process unveils several structural issues that characterize maternity care at the local and national levels, including themedicalization of birth, the discourse on risk and safety, the internal fragmentation of Italian midwifery, and the fragility of reproductive rights
Summary
Before February 21, the only two confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Italy dated back to January 30 and were related to two Chinese tourists on holiday in Rome. This article, like our engagements in the field of birth, is driven by our shared desire to contribute to fostering positive cultural change and social impact (Low and Merry, 2010) Such an aspiration proves more urgent than ever in times of social distancing and temporary restriction of reproductive rights: timely and informed critique is vital to the constant maintenance process that public health deserves in a democratic setting. A secondary sample is composed of parents and midwives from outside of Bologna who had not been directly involved in the local campaign Because of their efforts in reacting spontaneously to the survey, we decided to include their input in the broader context of our analysis. The goal of the questionnaire dedicated to midwives was to gather their personal views on how obstetric practice and care changed in response to the pandemic and collect accounts of their direct experiences accompanying women and births in times of COVID-19. The three words most frequently associated with midwifery by respondents were “listening,” “empathy,” and “compassion.”
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