Nurturing futures through the maternal microbiome.
Sociol Health Illn
; 2024 Aug 07.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39110548
ABSTRACT
Recently there has been growing recognition of the productive and protective features of our microbial kin and the crucial role of 'commensal' microbes in supporting and sustaining health. Current microbiological and pharmacological literature is increasingly highlighting the role of maternal gut microbiomes in the long-term health of both mothers and children. Drawing on the information and advice directed towards Australian parents from conception through the first years of a child's life, we consider its messaging about the need to secure for the foetus/future-child an enduring, optimal state of health by managing the maternal microbiome. We argue that this post-Pasteurian trend gives rise to relations of care that are, at once, newly collective and more-than-human-but also disciplinary in ways that position the maternal microbiome as a new site of scrutiny that disproportionately responsibilises and burdens mothers. We notice how microbiome research is used both to reframe motherhood as a form of micro(bial)-management and to maintain motherhood as a medicalised process. The feminist and more-than-human potential that this research can provide is missing in the way these resources are presented to parents.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Sociol Health Illn
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Australia
Pais de publicación:
Reino Unido