As biological, social, cultural and political experiences, pregnancy, birth, along with all the other experiences that come with the new identities, as (in particular but not only) mothers and fathers - continues to raise a variety of difficult questions, debates and contradictory perspectives. From the public-private debate – How public and how private are/can those experiences be?, to the contrast between motherhood as experience and motherhood as work (Chodorow); to the continuum between hyper-medicalized and hyper-naturalized pregnancy and birth; to what kind of state (policies) for “good” mothers, fathers and children as citizens there are in a global world; to important (bio)ethical debates around what Edelman (2004) calls reproductive futurism, but also around everyday experiences such as breastfeeding or co-sleeping. So, even though pregnancy, birth and more general parenthood social change dynamics have been extensively discused, new challenges are worth analyzing in order to have a better understanding of what (not) being a mother or/and a father means nowadays.

Dealing with such a challenge is not an easy task. Many times, a multi and inter-disciplinary approach (from the standpoints of sociology, political science, medicine, biology, psychology, philosophy) is needed in order to bring some light into the field and to reveal the complex framework of the multiple reflections on the topic.

In this special issue, we aim to provide a space of dialogue and debate in which these concerns can be explored from different scholarly perspectives.

We welcome manuscript proposals from any research area discussing, from a gender perspective, contemporary challenges of pregnancy and birth, but also motherhood and fatherhood. These can include explorations of topics such as (but not limited to):

Obstetrical violence in pregnancy and birth;
The (non)medicalization of pregnancy and birth and the market;
Being a mom/dad from a multidimensional intersectional perspective (class, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc.)
Good - good enough -bad mothers: power relations within motherhood;
Having a baby in a world of gadgets;
Being a good dad in a patriarchal world – rethinking masculinity;
Reproductive futurism and its critics;
What kind of state (public policies) for parents?
“Perfect” career moms and the neoliberal world;
Are some feminisms against (having) children?
On the (bio)ethics and ideology of breastfeeding;
What kind of a “village” (rural and/or urban spaces/communities) for mothers and fathers? Is the village moving on-line?
Women leaving their kids at home and taking care of other children abroad – global caring migration and its consequences on women as moms and their children;
Shared maternity. Maternity - an individual or a collective "project";
Mothers and fathers at the intersection of multiple identities – partners, lovers, daughters, sisters, professionals – and the (re)negotiation of various relations between partners;
Children as parents;
Childless women and men;
On the ethics of having/not having children in a hyper-populated climate changing world.


Issue coordinators:

Diana Elena Neaga, Nicolae Titulescu University, Bucharest;
Alice Monica Marinescu, performer and playwright, part of the collectives Political Theatre School, Political Theatre Platform, Macaz Theatre;
Mihaela Michailov (playwright and cultural educator, National University of Theatre and Film I.L. Caragiale, Bucharest, co-founder of Replika Center for Educational Theatre and part of the collectives ADO and Literature and Feminism;