“Pregnant? You Need a Flu Shot!”

This chapter explores the implications of vaccine policy as a contested regulatory site and a newly gendered medical discourse. Tracking articulations of maternal vaccination across public health and biomedical registers, the authors find an amorphous concept that conflates motherhood with femininity, and both with pregnancy, thus entangling the health interests of women, infants, and fetuses. This circumstance suggests that the symbols, schemes, and goals surrounding maternal vaccination create a situation wherein language cannot capture material experience, impeding not only women’s advocacy, but all healthcare advocacy. The study suggests that a clearer articulation of maternal vaccination schemes may require more precise terminology.