Anna Molas

@anna-molas.bsky.social

Lecturer in Anthropology at Monash University | First book grant ISRF | Ciència, tecnologia, medicina i reproducció

So happy to share the first paper of our research project on preterm birth, NICU care and the implications of the Artificial Placenta. This one on decision-making for extremely preterm newborns in Spain, published at SSM 😊https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625000899

Abstract
Neonatal expertise and technologies have been perfected over the last decades, improving preterm infants' survival rates and allowing a gradual reduction in the gestational age limits of fetal viability. Using the concept of viability as a starting point, we analyze decision-making processes regarding extremely preterm newborns at the limits of viability. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in a public hospital in Barcelona between March and November 2023, we examine the knowledge forms, rationalities and values that healthcare workers employ when guiding families in decisions about infants' viability. In this respect, we thoroughly analyze the actors involved and the extent of their agency. The findings point out that although neonatal decisions in Spain are embedded in an ethos of “individual responsible choice,” they are in practice collectively produced and shaped by two main (sometimes conflicting) drivers: the perceived means of families to face the challenges posed by infants with high chances of severe sequelae (the ‘viability of families’), and the preterm patients' perceived “will to live” (‘fetal viability’). The study highlights how viability in this context needs to be understood within the structural socioeconomic constraints and struggles to make and raise families in Spain.

So excited to see the special issue "Reproductive labourers" co-edited by Laura Perler and myself published at Medical Anthropology! On the value of the voices and experiences of egg donors and surrogates around the globe. Great diversity of contributions...🧵 www.tandfonline.com/toc/gmea20/4...

Medical Anthropology

REPRODUCTIVE LABOURERS: CENTERING THE VOICES OF EGG DONORS AND SURROGATES IN THE GLOBAL BIOECONOMY. Volume 43, Issue 8 of Medical Anthropology

tandfonline.com

Ja disponible el programa #GensAnonimsTV3 del @30minuts en què vaig col·laborar parlant sobre la meva recerca en repro assistida i donació d'òvuls. Ahir una breu pinzellada dels molts temes que segueixen sobre la taula i que necessiten de més espais, informació i debat conjunt.

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