Pregnancy and the Reproductive Habitus of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women

Anthropological scholarship frames pregnancy as an out of ordinary embodied event, rarely focusing on mothers of more than four children. We interviewed 49 ultra-orthodox Jewish [Haredi] women in Israel and the US who birthed up to 16 children. We suggest that Haredi women are acculturated to the routines of pregnancy, childbirth, and a habitual position of receptiveness toward continuous childbearing as an act of religious devotion. This “circumferential habitus” prepares women for the routines, attitudes, and dispositions of pregnancy as a way of life. Nevertheless, the deeply embodied experiences of pregnancy do not become “second nature,” revealing the “holes” or limits of the reproductive habitus.