Warning: This episode includes discussion of pregnancy and childbirth, including birth trauma and child loss.

Chine and Maddy go back to the beginning, and explore the physical and spiritual changes that takes place in pregnancy, and the embodied nature of giving birth.

How has something that is a universal human experience come to signify something alien and traumatic? How does becoming a mum alter the sense of individualism Western society pushes us towards, and open our eyes to interdependence? In a so-called post-religious age, have we lost some of the rituals that recognise the transition to motherhood as a transcendent, spiritual and existential experience?

We discuss the ways in which machines help women and their babies thrive; but as scientific advancement accelerates, how might the prospect of growing babies in artificial wombs or ‘bio-bags’ affect the place of mother and challenge our conceptions of what it really means to be human? 

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction to Motherhood vs. the Machine

00:03:11 Exploring the Complexity of Mothering Work

00:05:01 Personal Experiences of Pregnancy and Childbirth

00:11:20 Cultural Narratives and the Experience of Labor

00:17:49 The Role of Community and Support in Motherhood

00:23:21 Racial Inequality in Maternal Health

00:29:52 The Future of Pregnancy: Technology and Machines

00:38:11 The Transformative Nature of Motherhood

00:45:14 Conclusion and Reflection on Motherhood

Featured in this episode: Theologian Rachel Muers, chair of divinity at the University of Edinburgh; writer Mary Harrington, contributing editor of Unherd, and author of Feminism Against Progress; Lucy Jones, author of Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood; Professor Dominic Wilkinson, medical ethicist and neonatal intensive care doctor

Keywords

motherhood, pregnancy, childbirth, technology, maternal health, cultural narratives, community support, racial inequality, personal experiences, future of pregnancy

The Team

🎙️ Hosts: Chine McDonald (@ChineMcDonald) and Madeleine Penninton (@mlmpennington)

🎬 Executive producer: Stephanie Tam

🎧 Audio editor and sound engineer: David Benjamin Blower

🎛️ Recording engineer and assistant producer: Daniel Turner  

💡 Produced by the ‪@thinktanktheos‬ www.theosthinktank.co.uk/

With thanks to the Fetzer Institute