Abstract
Anna Fielder’s Going into Labour: Childbirth in Capitalism makes a bold claim: childbirth is productive labor at the heart of capitalism, shaped by and shaping technology, law, and social relations. Drawing on Marxist and Marxist-feminist traditions, Fielder argues persuasively that pregnancy and childbirth directly sustain capital accumulation. This reframing places childbirth at the center of debates about labor, technology, and gender relations in a way few works have done.
Methodologically, the book employs Marxism at its best. Capitalism provides the overarching framework under which childbirth is examined. Within this umbrella, Fielder focuses on four elements: technology, risk, evidence, and choice. Technology is explored historically, from the introduction of forceps in the nineteenth century to today’s reproductive technologies, and as a technocultural object shaped by cultural context. Risk is analyzed through medical practices and regulations. Evidence is traced through clinical and scientific research. Choice is interrogated as an ideological construct regulating both childbearing people and paid birth workers. Through these, childbirth emerges as a key site where the contradictions of capitalism appear.
The geographical emphasis is primarily on English-speaking countries—Australia, England, and the United States—though Fielder acknowledges broader transnational dimensions. Rather than offering a linear history, the book moves fluidly between early interventions, legal frameworks, and contemporary technologies, developing a Marxist analysis of childbirth under capitalism.
The book makes several groundbreaking contributions. First, it bridges a gap in Marxist-feminist scholarship by centering childbirth in the analysis of reproduction, a topic often overlooked even in feminist extensions of Marxism. Fielder’s critique of Marx is incisive: while he recognized self-preservation and propagation as necessary for labor, he neglected how forced reproduction under slavery was central to capitalism’s expansion. By highlighting the reproductive labor of enslaved women, she shows how capital has always relied on gendered and racialized exploitation.
Second, the book traces the historical entanglement of childbirth, technology, and law. From forceps to in vitro fertilization, Fielder situates technological “advances” as tied to capitalist imperatives. Her analysis of the 1902 Midwives Act in England is particularly compelling, showing how legal frameworks restricted midwifery and subordinated it to male doctors. She extends this analysis into the twentieth century, as corporate and state regulation reshaped childbirth practices to serve institutional interests.
Third, Going into Labour reframes childbirth as productive labor. Rather than relegating it to “reproductive labor,” Fielder insists that childbirth produces labor power itself, directly contributing to surplus value. This theoretical move unsettles conventional boundaries between production and reproduction and connects childbirth to broader labor relations, from coerced reproduction under slavery to the precarious conditions of contemporary reproductive workers.
Fielder also illustrates how technologies and financial systems shape childbirth under capitalism. Her case study of O’Driscoll’s active management of labor at Dublin’s National Maternity Hospital shows how managerial practices adapted from assembly lines reshaped obstetric procedures. She demonstrates how financial logics incentivize interventions such as routine C-sections while discouraging vaginal births after C-sections or collaboration with midwives. While more research on transnational networks of technology production is needed, she persuasively frames these dynamics as “symptoms of global capital.”
Among the book’s greatest strengths is its integration of feminist Marxist theory with science and technology studies. Fielder’s background as a midwife lends authority and depth to her legal-historical analysis, grounding her arguments in intimate knowledge of childbirth practices. The writing is sophisticated yet accessible, weaving history, law, technology, and personal expertise into a model of interdisciplinary feminist scholarship.
The book is written with clarity, but readers not familiar with Marxist theory or clinical childbirth may find some sections challenging. At times, reliance on Marxist categories risks obscuring non-Western experiences, given the primary focus on English-speaking countries. Yet, Fielder acknowledges the global scope of capitalism and invites further research to extend her analysis. These limitations point to fertile directions for future work rather than diminishing the book’s impact.
The final chapters return persuasively to the claim that childbirth must be understood as productive labor within capitalism. By drawing together historical, technological, and legal strands, they reinforce the argument that childbirth is central to capitalist reproduction. This book is a must-read for Marxist scholars as well as researchers in science and technology studies, gender studies, feminist theory, care studies, labor studies, and medical anthropology. It will also resonate with practitioners in midwifery and reproductive justice movements. For readers of Gender & Society, the book offers a sophisticated bridge between feminist theory, labor analysis, and technology studies, reframing childbirth as a productive site of capitalist relations and enriching debates about the intersections of gender, work, and care.