Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization

by Khiara M. Bridges

Reproducing Race, an ethnography of pregnancy and birth at a large New York City public hospital, explores the role of race in the medical setting. Khiara M. Bridges investigates how race—commonly seen as biological in the medical world—is socially constructed among women dependent on the public healthcare system for prenatal care and childbirth. Bridges argues that race carries powerful material consequences for these women even when it is not explicitly named, showing how they are marginalized by the practices and assumptions of the clinic staff. Deftly weaving ethnographic evidence into broader discussions of Medicaid and racial disparities in infant and maternal mortality, Bridges shines new light on the politics of healthcare for the poor, demonstrating how the “medicalization” of social problems reproduces racial stereotypes and governs the bodies of poor women of color.

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Anthropology, Medicine, Feminism, History Of Medicine, Social Justice

306 pages, Paperback

First published February 16, 2011

Reviews

[Sarah Cavar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential in understanding the vectors of power that produce the racialized, gendered, and classed Patient. Bridges wields Foucault like a knife; her ethnographic analysis is fresh and exciting. It doesn't explicitly address disability often, but this is an excellent source whose narratives of marginalized women might be "cripped"–– especially as the medicalization of pregnancy / the pathologization of raced & gendered poverty become so fully entangled with the rhetoric we recognize as ableism. I love the way Bridges reaffirmed the violence as enacted by the state, via both impersonal institutions and clinicians. It's refreshing to read an account that does not simply call to "end the stigma" attached to certain patients, but rather to attack the very systems doing the stigmatizing.

[Maureen Disque · Rating 5 out of 5]

First ethnography I’ve ever read, and it was for school, BUT it was extremely eye opening and informational. Makes me wonder how the apparent racialization of patients in a medical setting might change (for the better or worse?) if our country were to adopt a nation-wide universal health care system.

[Elizabeth Micolisin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book for class and honestly loved it. The way it was broken down into race and class and then intertwined and asserted that both coexist and perpetuate the other with such vivid ethnographic detail was amazing

[Ardina · Rating 5 out of 5]

whew this book really challenged me! both the level at which it was written and the ideas within.

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic book on how programs that ostensibly are supposed to support pregnant women end up exceptionalizing and pathologizing their bodies… as well as how race is reproduced by societal & physician racism and certain cultures are seen as producing unhealthy/unruly bodies

[jackie rosenblum · Rating 4 out of 5]

i honestly found this ethnography really fascinating, but i don’t think it needed to be almost 300 pages long. there was definitely a point where i realized that i was just reading the same things over and over again.

[Patrick Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

the middle was challenging to get through, but the topics Bridges tackles are so incredibly important

[Emily Smith]

Chapter 5, WOW. The most important piece of the book personally.

[novelishreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

a lot of khiara bridges' work isnt listed on goodreads but she everything she writes is ingenious and comprehensive. khiara bridges you are everything i want to be as an academic

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75

I read this book for my thesis and I found it very interesting. Although a bit dense at times, it was easy to follow along and the ethnographic vignettes balanced the theoretical parts out. I really recommend reading this book to anyone who is interested in the influence of race and racism in the medical world.
The book touched less upon the role of gender and/or sex and their intersections with race than I expected but I think taking on this intersectional approach would have been too big of a project for this book/research.
Nevertheless, this book was a great way of delving into the topic of racism in obstetric (pregnancy) care and I recommend it to anyone!

[Tekara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throughout her ethnography, Bridges deconstructs the concepts of “race as a social construction” by examining the processes by which race is materialized, socialized, and embodied through the physical bodies of pregnant women. It is important to note that Bridges does not analyze constructions of race through just any pregnant women’s bodies, but rather poor, racial minority pregnant women.I recommend this book for anyone interested in work within the U.S health system, reproductive health, and race relations.

[Reciprocity21 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent ethnography. I read a lot of ethnographic work, I really appreciated the fact that the author including her feelings to her study. Its book like these that can lead to policy change if those involved would bother to read it.