Partial ectogestation and threats to the fetus: how healthcare professionals' caution may reinforce the medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth.

Abstract

Partial ectogestation is being developed in a bid to improve the survival rates and health outcomes associated with prematurity, but limited empirical research has been conducted on the views of key stakeholders, particularly healthcare professionals, in relation to this technology. This paper explores healthcare professionals' perspectives in England on the use and implementation of partial ectogestation, within the medicalized context of pregnancy and childbirth. Following an online survey, qualitative interviews were undertaken with 22 healthcare professionals who work closely with pregnant individuals and fetuses. Using a formula of the precautionary principle from environmental studies, the analysis presented illustrates healthcare professionals' apprehension toward partial ectogestation. With the fetus who may come to be transferred to an artificial placenta device at the centre of their concerns, participants were cautious of the technology producing poor outcomes and pushing the boundaries of nature. In response to these threats, they encourage strict criteria and clear parameters around the use of the technology. While healthcare professionals appear to endorse a social model of pregnancy when it comes to partial ectogestation, echoes of medicalization persist through medical determinations of poor outcomes and the continued centralization of the fetus as a patient.