Conjuring Justice Together: Fictive Kin as Social Capital amongst Black Birth Workers

• In Event: Race, Gender, and Class Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 1) Blackness, Community, and Resistance

Abstract

Existing research has shown that the presence of a doula or midwife significantly reduces birthing complications, particularly for populations currently underserved by traditional maternal healthcare systems. Despite increased political support for doula access, Black birthworkers’ professional networks remain understudied. Drawing on participant observation of a Black-owned botánica in Southern California, and twelve in-depth interviews with birthworkers, I find that a fictive kin network embedded in shared spiritual practice allows Black birthworkers to navigate the growing alternative reproductive healthcare market beyond state supervision. Black birthworkers routinely rely on spiritual ties to engage in performances of collective autonomy, strategically disengaging from formal political and medical institutions while creating community-based sites of reproductive care provision. Through the use of embedded peer networks, spiritual fictive kin ties empowered Black birthworkers to engage in localized, "boots on the ground" reproductive care in lieu of state-sanctioned reproductive care management.

Author

• Brianna Nicole Rodgers, University of California-Irvine