The role of (im)mobilities in migrants’ experiences of pregnancy and reproductive injustice

This chapter explores the relationship between mobility justice and reproductive justice by looking at the importance of ‘mundane’, everyday mobilities to accessing maternity services in England. The English National Health Service (NHS), like many other national health systems, is designed around the presumption of a ‘settled population’ with a degree of autonomy over their mobility. NHS maternity services share this presumption; the blueprint for maternity services, Better Births, constructs the ideal pregnant woman as engaged with services, and making and acting upon ‘informed choices’ that similarly require a degree of autonomy over everyday mobility. This chapter contrasts the expectations in Better Births with the experiences of vulnerable pregnant migrants, whose mobility is constrained by bordering policies and processes. Reproductive justice and mobility justice are demonstrated to be fundamentally intertwined, as mundane, everyday mobilities emerge as an important aspect of reproductive mobilities and as critical to the disciplining of pregnant migrants.