Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Conceiving A Colony: A Multi-Level Biocultural Analysis of the Maternal Stress-Preterm Birth Nexus in Puerto Rico

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  • This dissertation aims to elicit how a neo-colonial context shapes maternal and infant heath (MIH) outcomes by describing how they are socially, politically, historically, and culturally produced. Using a multi-level critical biocultural, medical anthropological research approach, the purpose of this research was to investigate maternal stress in the United States (US) territory/colony of Puerto Rico, and to determine whether, and if so, to what extent prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) contributes to the persistently high rate of preterm birth (PTB) on the island. In Chapter One, the general introduction, I outline the rationale and research plan for studying prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) and gestational age at delivery. Chapter Two focuses on the pilot study which includes semi-structured interviews with MIH experts who revealed structural inequities associated with the island’s two primary MIH concerns: the elevated PTB and cesarean section rates. Chapter Three transitions to the beginning of the larger dissertation research project focusing on PNMS and gestational age at delivery. Bringing Puerto Rican mothers voices to the fore, I contextualize PNMS in Puerto Rico during the childbearing year highlighting the ways in which political-economic precarity shapes the existence and severity of stress experiences within this context. Chapter Four centers on the examination of the impact of the 2016 Zika virus (ZIKV) crisis on Puerto Rican women’s experiences of PNMS – focusing on the disconnect between maternal beliefs and health behaviors as pregnant individuals wrestled with the island’s reproductive colonial past. Chapter Five is the conclusion of this dissertation, outlining each chapter and connecting the multiple ways in which colonization serves as the most pervasive etiology of PNMS in Puerto Rico. This conclusion ends with a post-script on my reflection of Hurricane Maria and how this natural disaster further exposed structural inequities as well as foreshadows the challenges and potential of future, collaborative MIH research on the island.
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  • Horan, H. (2019). Conceiving A Colony: A Multi-Level Biocultural Analysis of the Maternal Stress-Preterm Birth Nexus in Puerto Rico. Doctoral Dissertation.
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  • Ongoing Research
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  • 2019-06-14 to 2021-07-15

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