This one-day event, held at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) was a collaboration by British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies (CPCS), Birthrights, and Engaging Sociology at CCCU.

The programme included speakers from a range of academic disciplines – Sociology, Anthropology, History, Law, Philosophy, and Social Work – and from Third Sector organisations working with pregnant women. Sessions explored changing ideas about pregnancy, motherhood, responsibility and risk, and the impact of these ideas on women’s experience and professional services.

Films:

• • Session 1: ‘Ideal pregnancies’ and the new family planning
  • Session 2: Bad bodies, bad choices? Behavioural advice and the pregnant woman
  • Session 3: Pregnancy surveillance and the medical profession
  • Session 4: Breastfeeding, guilt, and ideals of good motherhood

Policing Pregnancy: Who should be a mother? builds on a previous, successful collaboration between BPAS, CPCS and Birthrights in April 2016. Held at the Royal College of Physicians in London, this attracted an audience of over 100 healthcare practitioners and academics, and national media coverage.

See the 2016 ‘Policing Pregnancy’ conference