Pregnant Multiplicities: Bodies,Reproduction,and Climate Change

Abstract

This article reiterates the importance of centring pregnant bodies in order to effectively and meaningfully address global human crises, notably climate change. It makes two interconnected points: One is the need for a transdisciplinary field of pregnancy studies which takes a critical feminist intersectional approach rooted in the concepts of reproductive justice and embodiment. The other is to suggest approaching embodied pregnancy as multiplicities, referring to the corporeal and temporal unboundedness and permeability of bodies in generative transactions with each other and their environments. The case is made with a discussion of the climate-related impacts on health and reproduction. As an exercise in thinking through multiplicities, this discussion is organised in terms of earthly elements (earth, air, fire, and water) as conceptualised in a number of non-Western and Western traditions. The article ends with a consideration of the movements to pursue an integrated embodied justice.