Understanding Reproduction in Social Contexts: A Reader: Caitlin Killian: Bloomsbury Academic

Understanding Reproduction in Social Contexts

A Reader

Textbook

Understanding Reproduction in Social Contexts

A Reader

Textbook

Description

In today's post-Roe world, U.S. maternal mortality is on the rise and laws regarding contraception, involuntary sterilization, access to reproductive health services, and criminalization of people who are gestating are changing by the minute.

Using a reproductive justice framework, Understanding Reproduction in Social Contexts walks students through the social landscape around reproduction through the life course. Chapters by cutting-edge reproductive scholars, practitioners, and advocates address the social control of fertility and pregnancy, the promises and perils of assisted reproductive technologies, experiences of pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, and birth, and how individuals make sense of and respond to the cultural, social, and political forces that condition their reproductive lives. The book takes an intersectional approach and considers how gender, sexuality, fatness, disability, class, race, and immigration status impact both an individual's health and the healthcare they receive. The inclusion of timely topics such as increased legal limitations on abortion, transpeople and reproduction, and new developments in assisted reproduction and family formation, speaks to the current generation of students.

An essential text for undergraduate and graduate courses on families, gender, public health, reproduction, and sexuality.

Introduction

Section I: Negotiating Sex and Relationships
1. Let's Talk about Love
Amy T. Schalet
2. Sexual Opportunities and Constraints: Women's Intimate Relationships across the Life Course
Lisa R. Miller and Savannah Bastian
3. Just Get on the Pill
Krystale E. Littlejohn
4. The Mating Gap: Educated Women and Missing Men
Marcia C. Inhorn

Section II: Reproductive Justice and Reproductive Abuses
5. Women of Color Organizing around Women's Health and Reproduction
Zakiya Luna
6. Involuntary Sterilization: Gender, Race, and Social Control
Amy V. D'Unger
7. Disability, Reproduction, and the Right to Optional Parenthood
Alison Dia Turner
8. Controlling Immigrant Reproduction and the Borders of National Identity
Nancy Hiemstra
9. Pregnancy and the New Jane Crow
Michele Goodwin
10. Reproductive Justice in the Prison System
If/When/How

Section III: Reproductive Health Disparities
11. Reproductive Health for Half the Public: On the Production of Ignorance about Male Reproductive Health by Scientists, Clinicians, and the Media
Rene Almeling
12. Body Stigma in Reproductive Healthcare: In Pursuit of Reproductive Justice for Fat Women
Erin D. Basinger and Margaret M. Quinlan
13. Bearing Inequality: Race, Class, and Temporal Injustice among New York City's Pregnant Low-Wage Workers
Elise Andaya
14. Setting the Standard for Holistic Care of and For Black Women
Black Mamas Matter Alliance
15. Black Maternal Mortality and Post-Traumatic Healing
Esther-Priscilla Ebuehi

Section IV: Prenatal Diagnosis and Reproductive Loss
16. Prenatal Diagnosis: Social and Ethical Dilemmas in Historical Perspective
Ilana Löwy and Diane B. Paul
17. Ad-Driven Pregnancy Apps, Bonding, and Miscarriage
Lara Freidenfelds
18. Men's Encounters with Reproductive Loss: A Rarely Discussed Lived Experience
Megan R. Story Chavez, Alex Eich, and Maddy Mortell

Section V: Abortion
19. On Abortion and Good Mother Ideology
Andréa Becker
20. Unsafe and Unequal: Reproductive Care in Catholic Hospitals in the US
Lori Freedman
21. Reproduction, Politics, and Liberty: How the Supreme Court Overturned Roe v. Wade
Susan Liebell

Section VI: Assisted Reproductive Technologies
22. Trying Everything to Bring Home a Baby: Self-Help Groups and Add-Ons while Undergoing Fertility Treatments
Rosanna Hertz
23. Biogenetic Kinship in Families Formed via Reciprocal IVF: 'It Was [My Partner]'s Egg But My Blood Flowed through Her'
Susie Bower-Brown, Kate Shaw, Anja McConnachie, Vasanti Jadva, Kamal Ahuja, and Susan Golombok
24. Making Gaybies: Queer Reproduction and Multiracial Feeling
Jaya Keaney
25. Negotiating and Navigating Surrogacy with Spouses
Elizabeth Ziff

Section VII: Birthing and Beyond
26. Expecting Better: Our Ongoing Experiment with Male Partner Inclusion in Pregnancy, Abortion, and Birth
Joan H. Robinson
27. Disrupting the Norms: Reproduction, Gender Identity, Gender Dysphoria, and Intersectionality
Trevor Kirczenow MacDonald, Michelle Walks, MaryLynne Biener, and Alanna Kibbe
28. Preventing an Unnecessary C-Section
Theresa Morris and Keridwyn Spiller
29. Attuned Consent: Birth Doulas, Care, and the Politics of Consent
Andrea Ford
30. The Misogyny of Lactivism: Why Breastfeeding is Central to the Discourse of Normative Motherhood
Karla Knutson

Section VIII: Adoption and Childfree by Choice
31. The Politics of International Adoption in the 21st Century
Estye Fenton
32. Beyond Color-Blind and Color-Conscious: Approaches to Racial Socialization among Parents of Transracially Adopted Children
Caitlin Killian and Nikki Khanna
33. 'Where's Your Man?' Intersectionality in the Adoption Stories of Two Black, Single, Female Sociologists
Cherise A. Harris and Kristie A. Ford
34. No Kidding: Childfree Women Confront the Pressures of Pronatalism
Carrie Lee Smith

Contributors

Product details

Published	Jun 12 2025
Format	Paperback
Edition	1st
Extent	560
ISBN	9798881801540
Imprint	Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations	7 bw illus, 5 tables
Dimensions	9 x 7 inches
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Understanding Reproduction in Social Contexts covers all the bases of the social landscape of reproduction, infusing fresh perspectives and rich nuances into the conversation. With thought-provoking chapters on often overlooked aspects of reproductive health, such as body stigma and pregnancy loss, this dynamic collection is a powerhouse resource for educators and researchers alike.

Amanda M. Czerniawski, Temple University
In this compelling and often galvanizing interdisciplinary reader, sociologist Caitlin Killian gathers classic readings and new contributions to illuminate the profoundly social qualities of reproduction. The remarkably thoughtful array of ideas and evidence illuminates what's at stake in contemporary reproductive politics and in efforts to advance reproductive justice.

Danielle Bessett, University of Cincinnati
This reader provides a comprehensive overview of the varied societal forces and conditions that impact our ostensibly private personal reproductive choices and experiences, from pregnancy prevention to fertility technologies, reproductive issues across the life course, and race, gender, and sexuality disparities. An enthralling and enlightening read for anyone, suitable for the classroom and the bedside table alike.

Hannah Espy, Lycoming College
In Understanding Reproduction in Social Contexts, Caitlin Killian has assembled a diverse, incisive, and accessible collection of essays that are ideal for college students interested in learning about timely issues involving sex and relationships, reproductive justice, abortion, assisted reproductive technologies, birthing, and adoption.

William Marsiglio, University of Florida
Understanding Reproduction in Social Contexts covers essential readings in the Sociology of Reproduction. It offers a wide range of topics and perspectives, and Dr. Caitlin Killian provides important context and framing. This reader would be an excellent choice for both undergraduate and graduate courses.

Andrea Bertotti Metoyer, Gonzaga University