Antropologicheskij forum, 2018, no. 37

“IF WE BREAK A LEG, WE’LL DEFINITELY GO TO A&E”: SPECIFICITIES OF INTERACTION BETWEEN RUSSIAN NATURAL PARENTING ADHERENTS AND OFFICIAL MEDICINE

Anna Avdeeva
University of Helsinki, Research project “CoreKin: Contrasting and Re-imagining Margins of Kinship”
38 Unioninkatu, Helsinki, Finland
anna.avdeeva()helsinki.fi

Abstract: The contemporary Russian healthcare system potentially meets all needs of citizens in the realm of medical services. In particular, it provides obstetric-gynecologic assistance to pregnant women, various types and forms of medical aid, and immunization. In this article I analyze reasons why the adherents of natural parenting, one of the most radical forms of intensive mothering, refuse these medical treatments and turn to such non-conventional practices as homebirth, anti-vaccination, and alternative medical healing. The analysis of 36 semi-structural interviews with natural mothers conducted in St Petersburg (2015) and Moscow (2016) within the framework of research on the phenomenon of natural parenting in contemporary Russia reveals that the choice of these practices is stipulated by an adherence to the idea of the body as flexible, agile system, and general mistrust of the institution of official medicine and specific risk assessment.

Keywords: natural parenting, home birth, natural birth, vaccine resistance, anti-vaccination, homeopathy, osteopathy, alternative medical practices, care privatization.

To cite: Avdeeva A., ‘“Esli my slomaem nogu, my poydem v travmu, konechno”: osobennosti vzaimodeystviya rossiyskikh posledovatelnits estestvennogo roditelstva s ofitsialnoy meditsinoy’ [“If We Break а Leg, We’ll Definitely Go to A&E”: Specificities of Interaction between Russian Natural Parenting Adherents and Official Medicine], Antropologicheskij forum, 2018, no. 37, pp. 151–176.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2018-14-37-151-176

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/037/avdeeva.pdf