Abstract
The publication of A Randomized Trial of Induction Versus Expectant Management (ARRIVE), conducted in the United States in 2018, heralded a paradigm shift within the obstetrical management of term pregnancy among people who have not previously given birth. ARRIVE finds its home among other canonical–and controversial–randomized controlled trials (RCTs) within obstetrics. We argue that RCTs have their own (after)life, both creating new subjects for biomedical intervention and recalibrating who reproductive health practitioners consider to be at risk of adverse health outcomes. These data have important consequences for medical social scientific engagement with RCTs to further interrogate the questions of risk and intervention within reproductive health.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 794-809 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2022 |
Funding
This project was funded under grant number T32HS022242 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The authors are solely responsible for this document’s contents, findings, and conclusions, which do not necessarily represent the views of AHRQ. Readers should not interpret any statement in this product as an official position of AHRQ or of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. None of the authors has any affiliation or financial involvement that conflicts with the material presented in this product. This work was supported by the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article. The authors wish to thank William A. Grobman, MD, MBA in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University; Catalin Buhimschi, MD, MMS, MBA in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The University of Illinois College of Medicine; George Saade, MD, in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch; and Robert Launay, Ph.D. in the Department of Anthropology at The Graduate School, Northwestern University for their thoughtful commentary and insight on initial drafts. Portions of this manuscript were presented at the Third-Year Fellows’ Retreat for the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine: Chicago, IL, 2019.
Keywords
- ARRIVE
- Term Breech
- United States
- breech presentation
- induction of labor
- randomized controlled trial
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Anthropology
