The Attachment Imperative: Parental Experiences of Relation-making in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

Standard

The Attachment Imperative : Parental Experiences of Relation-making in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. / Navne, Laura Emdal; Svendsen, Mette Nordahl; Gammeltoft, Tine.

In: Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 1, 03.2018, p. 120-137.

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

Harvard

Navne, LE, Svendsen, MN & Gammeltoft, T 2018, 'The Attachment Imperative: Parental Experiences of Relation-making in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit', Medical Anthropology Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 120-137. https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12412

APA

Navne, L. E., Svendsen, M. N., & Gammeltoft, T. (2018). The Attachment Imperative: Parental Experiences of Relation-making in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 32(1), 120-137. https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12412

Vancouver

Navne LE, Svendsen MN, Gammeltoft T. The Attachment Imperative: Parental Experiences of Relation-making in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 2018 Mar;32(1):120-137. https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12412

Author

Navne, Laura Emdal ; Svendsen, Mette Nordahl ; Gammeltoft, Tine. / The Attachment Imperative : Parental Experiences of Relation-making in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In: Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 2018 ; Vol. 32, No. 1. pp. 120-137.

Bibtex

@article{d75ee9a1d2fa4361b47b40c3d808ad90,
title = "The Attachment Imperative: Parental Experiences of Relation-making in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit",
abstract = "In this article, we explore how parents establish relations with extremely premature infants whose lives and futures are uncertain. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), we engage recent discussions of the limits of conventional anthropological thinking on social relations and point to the productive aspects of practices of distance and detachment. We show that while the NICU upholds an imperative of attachment independently of the infant's chances of survival, for parents, attachment is contingent on certain hesitations in relation to their infant. We argue that there are nuances in practices of relationmaking in need of more attention (i.e., the nexus of attachment and detachment). Refraining from touching, holding, and feeding their infants during critical periods, the parents enact detachment as integral to their practices of attachment. Such “cuts” in parent–infant relations become steps on the way to securing the infant's survival and making kin(ship). We conclude that although infants may be articulated as “maybe‐lives” by staff, in the NICU as well as in Danish society, the ideal of attachment appears to leave little room for “maybe‐parents.” ",
author = "Navne, {Laura Emdal} and Svendsen, {Mette Nordahl} and Tine Gammeltoft",
year = "2018",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1111/maq.12412",
language = "English",
volume = "32",
pages = "120--137",
journal = "Medical Anthropology Quarterly",
issn = "0745-5194",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
number = "1",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Attachment Imperative

T2 - Parental Experiences of Relation-making in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

AU - Navne, Laura Emdal

AU - Svendsen, Mette Nordahl

AU - Gammeltoft, Tine

PY - 2018/3

Y1 - 2018/3

N2 - In this article, we explore how parents establish relations with extremely premature infants whose lives and futures are uncertain. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), we engage recent discussions of the limits of conventional anthropological thinking on social relations and point to the productive aspects of practices of distance and detachment. We show that while the NICU upholds an imperative of attachment independently of the infant's chances of survival, for parents, attachment is contingent on certain hesitations in relation to their infant. We argue that there are nuances in practices of relationmaking in need of more attention (i.e., the nexus of attachment and detachment). Refraining from touching, holding, and feeding their infants during critical periods, the parents enact detachment as integral to their practices of attachment. Such “cuts” in parent–infant relations become steps on the way to securing the infant's survival and making kin(ship). We conclude that although infants may be articulated as “maybe‐lives” by staff, in the NICU as well as in Danish society, the ideal of attachment appears to leave little room for “maybe‐parents.”

AB - In this article, we explore how parents establish relations with extremely premature infants whose lives and futures are uncertain. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), we engage recent discussions of the limits of conventional anthropological thinking on social relations and point to the productive aspects of practices of distance and detachment. We show that while the NICU upholds an imperative of attachment independently of the infant's chances of survival, for parents, attachment is contingent on certain hesitations in relation to their infant. We argue that there are nuances in practices of relationmaking in need of more attention (i.e., the nexus of attachment and detachment). Refraining from touching, holding, and feeding their infants during critical periods, the parents enact detachment as integral to their practices of attachment. Such “cuts” in parent–infant relations become steps on the way to securing the infant's survival and making kin(ship). We conclude that although infants may be articulated as “maybe‐lives” by staff, in the NICU as well as in Danish society, the ideal of attachment appears to leave little room for “maybe‐parents.”

U2 - 10.1111/maq.12412

DO - 10.1111/maq.12412

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 28872187

VL - 32

SP - 120

EP - 137

JO - Medical Anthropology Quarterly

JF - Medical Anthropology Quarterly

SN - 0745-5194

IS - 1

ER -

ID: 185813518