The Birth of the Patient: Multiple Entities of Newborns in Russian Neonatal Care [Hardcover]

This book explores the complex ways in which a newborn patient is constructed, perceived, and treated within the medical context. It examines how the patients social position is shaped by the institutional settings in which they are situated and how their identity is influenced by various factors, including biomedical, social, economic, political, and bureaucratic processes. By focusing on the newborn as a physical, social, symbolic, and even an abstract statistical unit, highlighting their role in shaping economic and symbolic performance indicators for medical institutions and drawing on prolonged fieldwork and diverse empirical data, this book gives voice to the newborn voiceless and acknowledges the difficult labor of neonatal medical professionals.The book offers a comprehensive analysis of the newborn patient within the medical context and provides a nuanced understanding of the newborn's experience and the challenges faced by neonatal medical professionals.

Anastasia Novkunskayais associate professor in the Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research at the European University at Saint-Petersburg.
Artemiy Minakovis research fellow at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research at the European University at Saint-Petersburg.
Anna Klepikovais assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the European University at St. Petersburg.

Michel Foucault's landmark bookThe Birth of the Clinicdid not include consideration of infants. This book cleverly takes this idea and shows how humans are not only born, they are transformed into patients at the moment of birth through the discourses and apparatuses of healthcare systems. This book is highly recommended for all those interested in the social, cultural and political construction of patienthood in neonatal care. Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, UNSW Sydney

This fascinating study demonstrates how the achievements and challenges characterizing Rulcß