ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we identify a structural form of violence that a care ethical relational approach to reproductive care is up against: that of “maternal separation.” Confronted with reproductive and obstetric violence globally, we show that a hegemonic, racialized, instrumentalized, and individualized conception of pregnancy is responsible for a severance of relationalities that are essential to safe reproductive care: (1) the relationship between the person and their child or reproductive capabilities; and (2) the relationship between the pregnant person and their community of care. We pinpoint a dissolution of reproductive relationality in at least two discursive domains, namely, the juridical-political and the ethical-existential.
