Cutting out the Surrogate: Caesarean Sections in the Mexican Surrogacy Industry

• In Event: 4263 - The Role of Culture and Organizations in Reproductive Experiences

Abstract

Feminist scholars have argued that childbirth practices reflect broader cultural values and norms. This paper analyzes childbirth practices in the Mexican surrogacy industry to understand how competing values are negotiated in a transnational context. Drawing on ethnographic research and in-depth interviews with surrogate mothers, intended parents, physicians, and surrogacy agency staff, I find that even in the consumer-driven world of surrogacy, physicians are primarily responsible for childbirth decisions. Physicians in the Mexican surrogacy industry promote the use of Caesarean sections by stating that the maternal-infant bonding experience of vaginal birth is contraindicative of the goals of surrogacy. I explore the implications of this narrative for our understanding of how gender and kinship ideologies interest with notions of risk to inform medical practice. This article contributes to feminist analyses of medicalization by demonstrating how normative views on motherhood and family inform medical practice and materially impact women’s bodies.

Author

• April Hovav, University of California, San Diego