In search of the ideal maternity: Mobility, key to childbirth dreamed of by economic elites?

This article focuses on the relationship to childbirth of women from the internationally mobile elites and giving birth in a private maternity hospital (Gelly & al., 2021). Recent work on the social differentiation of perinatal care (Sauvegrain et al., 2022) often explores the question of social relations of domination, from the perspective of racialization. Few studies have addressed this issue by exploring the relationship of health professionals to the upper classes. We have recently treated this question from a sociological point of view (Cristofalo & al., 2019; Gelly & al., 2021). Here we wish to approach this theme from the point of view of critical social geography.

The analysis conducted and developed here is part of a research project on trajectories and social relations in perinatality (TRASOPER project) and opens up reflections on mobility, circulation and migration in the field of health. While we usually worked with people "migrating" for economic re...