Learning to Question and Control: Prenatal Care as Pedagogical to Vaccine Refusal

• In Event: 2156 - Reproductive Control and Decision-Making

Abstract

In the US, birth has become a highly architected experience for those with the greatest access to resources. Pregnancy preparations, including prenatal care, childbirth education, and peer interactions, encourage women to act as informed consumers, to communicate their own values, beliefs, and preferences in labor and delivery, and to challenge healthcare systems and medical providers. Simultaneously, there has been a growth in the number of mothers who reject medical recommendations for infant vaccination and newborn interventions. These challenges are presented by women with higher levels of education and resources, a group that is also most likely to insist on control over birth. In this article, I draw on qualitative data from parents who reject mainstream vaccination recommendations to highlight to interconnected experiences of childbirth self-advocacy and vaccine refusal. I suggest prenatal advocacy may serve as a pedagogical process that encourages vaccine refusal. I conclude by showing how this new pedagogy of patient empowerment is nurtured and respected by pediatricians who administer vaccines and provide well care, even as they struggle with parents who reject this core public health intervention.

Author

• Jennifer A. Reich, University of Colorado-Denver