PREGNANT EMBODIMENT DURING EXTREME BUSHFIRES: Breathing in Climate Crisis

Abstract

This chapter examines how phenomenology and feminist techno-science studies can help articulate and address the health impacts of climate change, focusing on experiences during the 2019–2020 Australian bushfires. Drawing from a two-year, interview-based study of pregnancy, birth, and early parenting in southeast Australia, the analysis centers on the fundamental act of breathing during environmental crisis. Climate change has created unprecedented challenges for human and nonhuman survival, manifesting in Australia through severe droughts, catastrophic fires, smoke events, and floods. Beyond these acute disasters, communities face the chronic effects of changing weather patterns, species extinction, and the COVID-19 pandemic, all of which impact physical and mental wellbeing. During the bushfire crisis, pregnant women received official advice to monitor their breathing due to potential risks to fetal and infant health. Study participants attempted to manage their breathing while grappling with anxiety about the largely undefined dangers of smoke exposure. This chapter explores how these women navigated the material and emotional dimensions of breathing in hazardous air conditions, examining their understanding of air quality risks, and how smoke exposure mediated their relationships with their unborn and newborn children.