CfP: Pregnancy, Poverty and Health Workshop

The Centre for the History of Health and Healthcare (CSHHH) Glasgow, is organizing a workshop around the theme 'Pregnancy, Poverty and Health' in July 2020. Please find attached a call for papers.

We warmly in invite researchers and academics from the social sciences and health humanities submit abstracts, but we would also like to invite practitioners working in low income communities to contribute. As 2020 is the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, related papers would be particularly welcome.

Women living in poverty have always suffered greater health risks during pregnancy than their wealthier counterparts. Even in western countries where vast amounts of money are spent on healthcare, birth outcomes tend to be poorer in low-income communities than in wealthier neighbourhoods. Poor women are also less likely (or less able) to fully engage with the available healthcare. Yet despite these longstanding challenges, we understand little about women’s pregnancy experiences while living on low incomes.

While in recent years, scholars and practitioners across a range of disciplines have increasingly investigated health inequalities and considered how best to address them, pregnancy has attracted limited attention from the medical humanities. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, this Pregnancy, Poverty and Health Workshop will facilitate interdisciplinary discussions by inviting a range of research into the relationships between pregnancy, poverty and health. We welcome proposals for papers which address any aspect of such relationships, but may include:

•Patient-practitioner relationships
•Health and welfare initiatives and advocacy for change
•Health education
•Issues of race, ethnicity or maternal age
•Place specific factors (urban/rural, climate, culture)
•Experiences of pregnancy on low-incomes (prenatal, childbirth and postnatal)
•Pregnancy and mental health
•Religious, cultural or social influences on maternal behavior
•Complex pregnancies and medical technologies
•Household economics

Paper proposals should include a 200-250 word abstract and a brief 100-150 word biography with contact information by 2 April, 2020.  This workshop is supported by the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare (CSHHH Glasgow), the Wellcome Trust and Glasgow Caledonian University.