Tell About the South: Taylor Livingston on Group Prenatal Care

Please join us at the Center for a lunchtime discussion titled “Social Medicine: Prenatal Care in a Group Setting.”

This is not your standard biomedical prenatal visit: there are nametags, cookies, and group yoga. CenteringPregnancy (CP) is a facilitative, non-hierarchal group prenatal healthcare program, which challenges the traditional provider-patient model of prenatal care and its central tenet that women and their pregnant bodies need medical professionals’ surveillance and intervention. Research has shown that participants of CP have better perinatal outcomes than women seeking traditional prenatal care. However, why CP participants have better perinatal outcomes is unknown. Based on an ethnographic investigation of CP sites in Durham, NC, this talk explores how the macro-level forces of cultural and historical intersections of race, gender, and socioeconomics in the South influence the subjective experience of CP programs.

Taylor Livingston is a PhD candidate in UNC’s Department of Anthropology and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). Her dissertation examines the intersections of race, class, and gender in the South through the lens of motherhood. Specifically, she researches how history, race, and class shape the birth outcomes of women participating in CenteringPregnacy. Taylor also coordinates the undergraduate intern program for the Southern Oral History Program.

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.