Containing pregnancies: The cervical stitch and the reproductive politics of foetal personhood.

This project investigates the reproductive politics of foetal personhood and pregnancy enacted by the use of the cervical stitch (cerclage), in the context of the English National Health Service (NHS)’s attempts to reduce preterm birth. The cervical stitch is an intervention in human pregnancy in which the cervix at the opening of the uterus is sewn shut to prevent a foetal body from emerging. It aims to optimise pregnancy outcomes by averting foetal loss, or the mortality and morbidity risks of premature birth, but medical evidence for improved outcomes is uncertain. This research investigates the reproductive politics of the cervical stitch through multi-sited ethnography in England, including interviews with clinicians, stakeholders, and pregnant people, and analysis of policy and guidelines. It asks how the cervical stitch is conceptualised and used, and what concepts of foetal personhood and pregnancy are scripted into, and enacted by, this reproductive technology. Engaging theoretically with feminist biopolitics, ontological politics, and foetal politics, the project will use the ambiguities and tensions implicit in the cervical stitch to draw out fundamental understandings of what a pregnancy is, what it does, and how a new person emerges from it, in the context of reproductive politics in England.