Pregnancy and Birth in Russia

Anna Temkina is Professor of Sociology, Chair in Public Health and Gender, and co-director of the Gender Studies Programme at the European University at Saint-Petersburg, Russia. She received her Ph.D. in Social Sciences from University of Helsinki in 1997. Her interest in gender studies and feminism began in 1990es, now her area of expertise includes gender, reproductive health, sexuality, feminist theory, and gender relations in Soviet and Post-Soviet societies. Anastasia Novkunskaya is a sociologist and Associate Professor on qualitative health research at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research at the European University at Saint-Petersburg, Russia. She has defended her PhD in Social Sciences, at the University of Helsinki in 2020. Her PhD thesis was devoted to the arrangement of maternity care services in Russian small towns. Anastasia’s key research field is the sociology of health and medicine, sociology of professions, and qualitative methods. Daria Litvina is a sociologist, Research Fellow at Gender Studies Program and Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research at European University at Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Her academic career began in 2011. Daria’s key research interests regard social studies of health and medicine; gender studies (parenthood, sexuality, body, sexual harassment); sociology of emotions ("new ethics", emotional regimes in institutions); methodology of qualitative research (ethnography, ethics, discourse analysis) and youth studies ((sub)cultures, political engagement).

1. Introducing the struggle for "good care" in Russian maternity care 2. "Sociologists in white": methodological reflections on fieldwork in maternity care 3. Maternity care in Russia: the Soviet legacy and post-Soviet reforms 4. Childbearing women in Russia: consumer agency and the negotiation of "good care" 5. Providers negotiating multifaceted "good care" 6. Struggling for "good care:" the professional as political Conclusions: struggling with and within the System for "good" maternity care