Pregnancy & Childbirth

Pregnancy occupies strong symbolic space in cultures around the globe. As both the maturity of a life and a momentous transitional event within the woman's lifetime, pregnancy becomes the center of cultural desires and anxieties around gender, power, selfhood, and even nationhood. Medical technology has more and more refigured the physiological possibilities of pregnancy, particularly through assisted reproduction for the infertile, its extensions to older-age pregnancy and surrogacy, and through genetic testing.

To have the best chance of having a proper childbirth, a pregnant woman should avoid:

a) smoking
b) street drugs
c) alcohol
d) large amounts of caffeine
e) Artificial sweeteners.