Growing better brains? Pregnancy and neuroscience discourses in English social and welfare policies.

In recent years, English welfare and health policy has started to include pregnancy

within the foundation stage of child development. The foetus is also increasingly

designated as ‘at risk’ from pregnant women. In this article, we draw on an analysis

of a purposive sample of English social and welfare policies and closely related

advocacy documents to trace the emergence of neuroscientific claims-making in

relation to the family. In this article, we show that a specific deterministic understanding

of the developing brain that only has a loose relationship with current

scientific evidence is an important component in these changes. We examine the

ways in which pregnancy is situated in these debates. In these debates, maternal stress

is identified as a risk to the foetus; however, the selective concern with women living

in disadvantage undermines biological claims. The policy claim of neurological ‘critical

windows’ also seems to be influenced by social concerns. Hence, these emerging

concerns over the foetus’ developing brain seem to be situated within the gendered

history of policing women’s pregnant bodies rather than acting on new insights from

scientific discoveries. By situating these developments within the broader framework

of risk consciousness, we can link these changes to wider understandings of the ‘at

risk’ child and intensified surveillance over family life.