Abstract In this article, we conceptualize how Davis’ two concepts of uneven reproduction and obstetric racism—both rooted in the US context—are effectuated in the Netherlands. We consider uneven reproduction to consist of bio‐ and necropolitics, namely the management and regulation of a population's bodies, life and death. Through bio‐ and necropolitics, certain life is optimized by investments, and other life is negated by disinvestments in reproductive care in daily care work through obstetric racism. We develop an understanding of obstetric racism in the Netherlands by analyzing how it operates as a form of uneven reproduction, by providing theoretical depth to the concept of obstetric racism in the context of Europe. Based on data analysis from interviews and focus group conversations on obstetric violence with midwives, doulas, midwives‐in‐training, and mothers who gave birth within the last 10 years, we link the concept of uneven reproduction to daily practices of obstetric racism in the Netherlands. We find that obstetrics operates on the basis of linguistic racism and othering through exoticization, specifically for women racialized as Black through the racial stereotype of being “natural birthers,” while other marginalized racialized women are seen as “bad birthers.”
Waal et al. (Mon,) studied this question.