New parents suddenly come face to face with myriad issues that demand careful attention but appear in a context unlikely to provide opportunities for extended or clear-headed critical reflection, whether at home with a new baby or in the neonatal intensive care unit. As such, their capacity for autonomy may be compromised. Attending to new parental autonomy as an extension of reproductive autonomy, and as a complicated phenomenon in its own right rather than simply as a matter to be balanced against other autonomy rights, can help us to see how new parents might be aided in their quest for competency and good decision making. In this paper I show how a relational view of autonomy attentive to the coercive effects of oppressive social norms and to the importance of developing autonomy competency, especially as related to self-trust can improve our understanding of the situation of new parents and signal ways to cultivate and to better respect their autonomy.

Gender and body-based distinctions continue to be a defining component of women's identities, both in psychoanalytic treatment and in life. In this book, a distinguished group of contributors explore the ways in which women's sexual and reproductive capabilities, and their bodies, are regarded as societal and patriarchal property, and how as the "other", they can be the focus of mistreatment such as rape, sexual slavery, restriction of reproduction rights, and ongoing societal repression. They also explore the cultural definitions of motherhood, and how these set narrow definitions for the acceptable face of motherhood and for being a woman generally

Reproductive choices are at once the most private and intimate decisions we make in our lives and undeniably also among the most public. Reproductive decision making takes place in a web of overlapping concerns - political and ideological, socio-economic, health and health care - all of which engage the public and involve strongly held opinions and attitudes about appropriate conduct on the part of individuals and the state. Law, Policy and Reproductive Autonomy examines the idea of reproductive autonomy, noting that in attempting to look closely at the contours of the concept, we begin to see some uncertainty about its meaning and legal implications - about how to understand reproductive autonomy and how to value it. Both mainstream and feminist literature about autonomy contribute valuable insights into the meaning and implications of reproductive autonomy. The developing feminist literature on relational autonomy provides a useful starting point for a contextualised conception of reproductive autonomy that creates the opportunity for meaningful exercise of reproductive choice. With a contextualised approach to reproductive autonomy as a backdrop, the book traces aspects of the regulation of reproduction in Canadian, English, US and Australian law and policy, arguing that not all reproductive decisions necessarily demand the same level of deference in law and policy, and making recommendations for reform.

The delivery of high quality and equitable care for both mothers and newborns is complex and requires efforts across many sectors. The United States spends more on childbirth than any other country in the world, yet outcomes are worse than other high-resource countries, and even worse for Black and Native American women. There are a variety of factors that influence childbirth, including social determinants such as income, educational levels, access to care, financing, transportation, structural racism and geographic variability in birth settings. It is important to reevaluate the United States' approach to maternal and newborn care through the lens of these factors across multiple disciplines. Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice reviews and evaluates maternal and newborn care in the United States, the epidemiology of social and clinical risks in pregnancy and childbirth, birth settings research, and access to and choice of birth settings.

Abortion is a legal medical procedure that has been provided to millions of American women. Since the Institute of Medicine first reviewed the health implications of national legalized abortion in 1975, there has been a plethora of related scientific research, including well-designed randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews, and epidemiological studies examining abortion care. This research has focused on examining the relative safety of abortion methods and the appropriateness of methods for different clinical circumstances. With this growing body of research, earlier abortion methods have been refined, discontinued, and new approaches have been developed. The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care in the United States offers a comprehensive review of the current state of the science related to the provision of safe, high-quality abortion services in the United States. This report considers 8 research questions and presents conclusions, including gaps in research.

Technology has come to dominate the modern experience of pregnancy and childbirth, but instead of empowering pregnant women, technology has been used to identify the foetus as a second patient characterised as a distinct entity with its own needs and interests. Often, foetal and the woman’s interests will be aligned, though in legal and medical discourses the two ‘patients’ are frequently framed as antagonists with conflicting interests. This book focuses upon the permissibility of encroachment on the pregnant woman’s autonomy in the interests of the foetus. Drawing on the law in England & Wales, the United States of America and Germany, Samantha Halliday focuses on the tension between a pregnant woman’s autonomy and medical actions taken to protect the foetus, addressing circumstances in which courts have declared medical treatment lawful in the face of the pregnant woman’s refusal of consent. As a work which calls into question the understanding of autonomy in prenatal medical care, this book will be of great use and interest to students, researchers and practitioners in medical law, comparative law, bioethics, and human rights.

Technology has come to dominate the modern experience of pregnancy and childbirth, but instead of empowering pregnant women, technology has been used to identify the foetus as a second patient characterised as a distinct entity with its own needs and interests. Often, foetal and the woman s interests will be aligned, though in legal and medical discourses the two patients are frequently framed as antagonists with conflicting interests. This book focuses upon the permissibility of encroachment on the pregnant woman s autonomy in the interests of the foetus. Drawing on the law in England & Wales, the United States of America and Germany, Samantha Halliday focuses on the tension between a pregnant woman s autonomy and medical actions taken to protect the foetus, addressing circumstances in which courts have declared medical treatment lawful in the face of the pregnant woman s refusal of consent. As a work which calls into question the understanding of autonomy in prenatal medical care, this book will be of great use and interest to students, researchers and practitioners in medical law, comparative law, bioethics, and human rights."