“Mommy with a Different Body”: Rethinking Motherhood through American Breast Cancer Memoirs

Motherly guilt and anxieties about reproductive choices are often a significant source of psychological trauma in women who decide to have a child after being diagnosed with breast cancer (BC), but these themes are less visible in breast cancer memoirs. Patriarchal societal norms about women’s roles have long influenced women’s ideas about their bodies and motherhood. However, women with BC who are already in a vulnerable position, struggling with a life-threatening disease, feel helpless and guilty about their desires to be mothers, as society often considers them to be bad or selfish mothers. The present study examines Tig Notaro’s I’m Just a Person (2017) and Caitlin Brodnick’s Dangerous Boobies (2017) to reveal the psychological and moral dilemma of women with BC, whose infertility issues can be partially solved with the help of advanced technologies. Their emotional turmoil regarding motherhood and fertility suggests the need for more empathy and concern from both physicians and families. These selected memoirs by two celebrated American comedians also reflect how even financially independent women in the Global North often feel anxious about their reproductive choices at the onset of BC. Therefore, many such studies are needed to understand the psychological trauma of such women from different cross-sections of society and culture. This article reveals the need to respect the autonomy of women with chronic illnesses, to support them with their individual decisions, and also to help them to overcome their feelings of guilt and shame

From Care to Coercion: The Unspoken Reality of Disrespect and Abuse of Women in Maternal Healthcare in India

The article reviews the literature pertaining to reproductive justice in maternal healthcare settings, emphasizing issues of disrespect and abuse (D & A) within healthcare institutions in India, a problem which is often referred to as “labour room violence” or “obstetric violence.” Experiencing D & A during such a critical stage leaves lasting and painful memories of healthcare settings that can lead to avoidance of future medical treatment. This article aims to systematically review and document the prevalence, forms, causes, and consequences of D & A that women face during prenatal care, with a particular focus on programs and policies in India. This paper defines D & A and provides background crucial for identifying and categorizing behaviours that violate standards of dignity, safety, human rights, and justice in reproductive care, particularly regarding women’s needs. The research addresses gaps in data and literature on D & A in the Indian context and calls for increased efforts to train, counsel, and sensitize healthcare professionals, the frontline health workforce, and the public

(De)Constructing Desperation: The Dargah of Bu Ali Shah Qalandar as a Site of Emotional Wellbeing for Infertile Women

Infertility is a health issue that requires serious consideration due to its impact on the social, emotional, and economic wellbeing of the affected individual. Despite the development of assisted reproductive technology (ART) that has successfully enabled conception, these methods are not universally accessible to all women. There can be many roadblocks in an individual’s journey that go beyond medical domains. Studies have indicated that, when paired with medical treatment, spiritual healing practices and religious interventions can have a positive effect on the emotional health of those struggling to conceive. This study employs a narrative approach to document the lived experiences of women who have placed their hopes on spiritual healing to achieve motherhood. Five in-depth, unstructured interviews were conducted with cisgender women aged 25 to 40 years who are grappling with primary or secondary infertility. These women have been regularly visiting the Dargah of Bu Ali Shah Qalandar in the city of Panipat in Haryana, India, drawing upon a social support system that aids them in coping with infertility-related desperation, stigma, anxiety, and social isolation. The findings highlight that the emotional and social support these women experience at the Dargah leads to a heightened sense of tranquillity and emotional wellbeing. As they witnessed successful cases of spiritual healing and interacted with people in critical situations, they were able to renew their hope and change their perspectives towards life and infertility

When Your Phone Knows You’re Pregnant Even If You Don’t: Period Tracking Applications and Threats to Privacy

In everyday life, menstruating persons around the world use different applications to help them monitor menstruation or fertile days to plan or to avoid conception, as well as to monitor their health condition. Much to users’ dismay, in recent years disturbing information appeared in the media about the alleged disclosure of information collected by menstrual monitoring applications to third parties for commercial purposes. The mechanism of such a procedure seems to be relatively simple—if the user of the application does not enter information about the onset of menstruation on the date set by the application as a start date, after a few days a user may notice an increased number of advertisements for products related to pregnancy and motherhood on the devices it uses. This paper examines whether data collected by period tracking applications may be considered as data concerning health which is covered under privacy laws (the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation is the current gold standard for privacy legislation), and if this data should be treated under law. Additionally, the authors contend that collecting information on menstruation cycles and sharing such data (either with private entities or public bodies) infringes upon the right to privacy, intimacy, and reproductive autonomy of users of period tracking applications

Reproductive Labour: Preventing Babies, Making Babies, and Growing Babies

During her reproductive years, a Canadian heterosexual cisgender woman will likely engage in the labour of preventing pregnancy, trying to achieve pregnancy, and/or being pregnant. While each stage of reproduction involves significant time and energy, the labour tied to preventing pregnancy, conceiving, and growing life is undervalued, unrecognized, and rendered invisible. Much of the work around reproduction involves not just cognitive function, but also a mental load and emotional labour. It is assumed that women need to do this labour as a pregnancy exists within her reproductive body; however, this assumption fails to acknowledge the reality of how laborious each stage of women’s reproductive lives can be. Women’s labour, while pivotal for the success of capitalism, is rendered invisible while it is simultaneously assumed to be naturally occurring and lacking economic value. This process can include the work of preventing babies, making babies, and growing babies

Massachusetts State Universities’ Equal Opportunity, Nondiscrimination, and Title IX Plan

Together, Bridgewater State University, Fitchburg State University, Framingham State University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Salem State University, Westfield State University, and Worcester State University (collectively, “the Universities”) have carefully developed the major elements of this Equal Opportunity, Nondiscrimination, and Title IX Plan (“Plan” or “EO Plan”) in accordance with applicable local, state and federal constitutions, statutes, regulations, and executive orders

Bridgewater Magazine, Volume 34, Number 2, Winter 2025

ON THE COVER: Sophia MacQueen Pooler, ’25, works in the university’s photonics/optical engineering lab. photo by Paul Connors IN THIS ISSUE: we highlight several key innovations that generous benefactors have helped make possible for our students – past, present and future. This comes at a time when BSU embarks on Without Exception: The Bridgewater Campaign for Success through Innovation, the largest campaign in the institution’s history.https://vc.bridgew.edu/br_mag/1087/thumbnail.jp

Age-Related Infertility and Reproductive Tourism in Annarita Briganti’s Novel Non Chiedermi Come Sei Nata

Traditional socio-cultural constructions of womanhood have often focused on women’s reproductive capacity, which has determined their destiny and shaped their identity over centuries. Given the long-time equation of motherhood and women’s identity, infertility is an important topic that raises question about how women experience infertility and how science, through advances in assisted reproduction, has intervened in the creation of life. In the European context, Italy has one of the lowest birth rates, a phenomenon attributable to a series of adverse structural conditions. In particular, precarious work conditions, insufficient wage levels, and a high cost of living represent significant obstacles to the materialization of maternity and paternity plans. In the absence of a holistic approach to address these problems, women continue to be held responsible for reproduction. This has created a focus on assisted reproduction treatments and “reproductive tourism,” the practice of traveling to another country for reproductive care, as the main solution to the problem of low birth rates. However, this solution poses new ethical dilemmas that can give rise to inequalities among women and can perpetuate the lack of international regulations protecting the rights of all the parties involved. These two issues of assisted reproduction treatments and reproductive tourism can be addressed by the reproductive justice framework that works to ensure social justice and reproductive rights. In recent years, reproductive justice has emerged as a prolific discipline raising awareness and condemning the structural and legislative problems faced by couples who wish to exercise their right to have a child. Considering the theoretical framework of reproductive justice, this paper will analyze the experience of infertility, the desire for motherhood, and the implications that assisted reproduction techniques have for women in the Italian novel Non Chiedermi Come Sei Nata (Don’t Ask Me How You Were Born, 2014) by Annarita Briganti

Cultural Representations of Obstetric Violence in Contemporary Italy

This article is the first examination of a hybrid corpus of cultural narratives of obstetric violence in contemporary Italy. Adopting a reproductive justice approach, the paper considers obstetric violence as gendered, intersectional, and ontological violence against reproductive subjects over the course of their lived reproductive experiences. Combining personal and cultural narratives, the article examines the 2022 comic “Da Che Mondo È Mondo,” written by Irene Caselli and illustrated by Rita Petruccioli, Alberto Basaluzzo’s 2018 short film Si È Sempre Fatto così, and Antonella Lattanzi’s 2023 novel Cose Che Non Si Raccontano to assess how and to what extent they contribute to creating a transformative discourse for women and reproductive subjects. By framing obstetric violence as a concept of struggle within the Italian institutionalized social imaginary, where it still remains a divisive and barely visible subject to be avoided, the texts examined reveal the ways in which obstetric violence damages the complex relationality inherent in the human reproductive experience. These texts highlight the role of medical personnel as unconscious perpetrators of obstetric violence, and they explore how reproductive experiences such as medically assisted reproduction and pregnancy loss are equally vulnerable to violent practices and toxic narratives