(Re)Theorising Pregnant Embodiment With/Through the Maternal Subject - Locating Alternative Feminist Approaches to Tackling Contemporary Reproductive

Almost 50 years after Roe V. Wade, the feminine/reproductive body finds itself once again the subject of policing and
politicisation in the U.S., Ireland and beyond. With this research, I attempt to respond to this global 'reproductive violence'
by (re)theorising pregnant embodiment with/through the maternal subject (Donath 2015). Contemporary obstetric
practice operates according to a model which conceptualises the pregnant body as a 'machine' which must be 'actively
managed', with little focus given to one's lived, embodied, experience (Martin 1989, Midwives for Choice 2017). Such
'masculinist' medical models negatively impact the pregnant person's experience with the healthcare system, but
moreover, they predetermine how we collectively relate to the pregnant subject/body as an 'environment' for 'foetal
development' (Petchesky 1987, O'Shaughnessy 2017). This research seeks to refocus pregnancy as a 'more-thanphysical/
visible' state of embodiment. Using participant photography and qualitative interviews, research participants are
asked to document their pregnancy; outlining specifically, their negotiation and experience of the first trimester, their
psycho-emotional state(s)/labour(s) and their 'encounter' with the obstetric sphere. These 'alternative' models of pregnant
embodiment are of particular interest to scholarship and advocacy in re-centering maternal agency and labour and in
furnishing greater attention to issues around maternal mental health (Hunter et al 2017).