Anna Molas

This is finally happening! I am so excited to share that 'Taming Egg Donors: The Egg Donation Reproductive Market in Spain' is out now with Palgrave! An in-depth ethnographic account about one of the biggest egg donation hubs in the world. More details: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Abstract Neonatal expertise and technologies have been perfected over the last decades, improving preterm infants' survival rates and allowing a gradual reduction in the gestational age limits of fetal viability. Using the concept of viability as a starting point, we analyze decision-making processes regarding extremely preterm newborns at the limits of viability. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in a public hospital in Barcelona between March and November 2023, we examine the knowledge forms, rationalities and values that healthcare workers employ when guiding families in decisions about infants' viability. In this respect, we thoroughly analyze the actors involved and the extent of their agency. The findings point out that although neonatal decisions in Spain are embedded in an ethos of “individual responsible choice,” they are in practice collectively produced and shaped by two main (sometimes conflicting) drivers: the perceived means of families to face the challenges posed by infants with high chances of severe sequelae (the ‘viability of families’), and the preterm patients' perceived “will to live” (‘fetal viability’). The study highlights how viability in this context needs to be understood within the structural socioeconomic constraints and struggles to make and raise families in Spain.

So happy to share the first paper of our research project on preterm birth, NICU care and the implications of the Artificial Placenta. This one on decision-making for extremely preterm newborns in Spain, published at SSM 😊https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625000899

In/Visible – A Photographic Journey Into the Lives of Egg Donors in Spain The result of a collaboration between an anthropologist and a photographer, in this photo essay we aim to visualize the medical process of egg donation and the quotidian lives of egg donors in Spai...

Photoessay on egg donors in Spain: Laura Perler and Tamara Sánchez Pérez offer a powerful photo essay in which they challenge the in/visibility of egg donors and show the medical process involved and the quotidian lives of egg donors in Spain www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Recentering Labor in the Egg Donation Bioeconomy: Egg Donors’ (Re)productive Work and Subjectification in Spain In 2019, Spanish fertility clinics reached a historical record of ova extractions. A total of 14,521 surgeries were performed to serve the growing egg demand internationally. Here I show how bringi...

Egg donors in Spain: here I show the vast amount of labor involved in becoming an egg donor in Spain and argues that, although this labor is essential for the generation of value in reproductive bioeconomies, it remains invisible and undertheorized. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Bridging Reproductive and Productive Work: The Case of Surrogates in California In this article, we explore the perspectives of commercial gestational surrogates in California, USA. Women who gestate for others reveal themselves as important agents in the process of giving mea...

Surrogates in California: Ayala, Álvarez and Rivas assert the importance of surrogates experience as a source of professional skills, downplaying its monetary value and placing it within favorable moral frameworks, thus finding cultural legitimacy. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Travelling Thai Surrogate Mothers: Required and Restricted Mobility in Transnational Surrogacy In response to the changing landscape of transnational surrogacy, the industry has introduced flexible business models requiring women to move within and across borders to act as surrogate mothers....

Surrogates in Thailand: Elina Nilsson demonstrates how surrogates im/mobility reveals critical insights into labor conditions and power relations and is formed within the global reproductive industry as well as the specific national context. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Worker-Mothers Between Legitimation and Discipline: Ambiguities in Egg Donation and Surrogacy in Ukraine In this article I explore the dual impact of framing egg donation and surrogacy as work in Ukraine’s fertility market. Egg donors, surrogates, and ART professionals use the labor narrative to legit...

Surrogates and ED in Ukraine: Polina Vlasenko highlights how women emphasize their economic role as worker-mothers, while clinics employ the framework to hold them accountable for outcomes. A discourse that empowers women yet imposes disciplinary demands. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Strategic In/Visibility of Turkish Egg Donors: Reproductive Labor, Secrecy, and Stigma in the Transnational Bioeconomy Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a Northern Cypriot clinic, I examine how practices of secrecy function as strategic tools for invisibilization in the lived realities of Turkish egg donors enga...

Egg donors in Turkey: Burcu Mutlu shows how practices of secrecy function as strategic tools for invisibilization in the lived realities of Turkish egg donors engaged in an illicit, gendered, and stigmatized form of reproductive labor. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Framing the Labor of Paid Egg Donors in Iran: Marginality, Gendered Care, and Divine Reward Despite the economic incentives evidenced in the recruitment strategies of the Iranian fertility industry for egg donors, the official discourse put forward by policymakers conveys egg donation as ...

Egg donors in Iran: Tiba Bonyad shows how Iranian egg donors articulate their participation in the local egg market through the prism of their economic marginality, gendered responsibilities, and religiously informed beliefs, including divine reward. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Intimate Voices in Transnational Reproductive Markets Published in Medical Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness (Vol. 43, No. 8, 2024)

Introduction piece by Laura Perler and myself on the three running themes in all the contributions: 1) the importance of situated knowledges, 2) the new labor reconfigurations in the globalised reproductive industry and, 3) the emerging vulnerabilities www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Centrality and Value of Women’s Voices Published in Medical Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness (Vol. 43, No. 8, 2024)

Great foreword by Michal Nahman, who situates the relevance of the centering the experiences of reproductive providers in a conext where "women's voices are being silenced in favor of practices that occlude their full participation in social life". www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Medical Anthropology REPRODUCTIVE LABOURERS: CENTERING THE VOICES OF EGG DONORS AND SURROGATES IN THE GLOBAL BIOECONOMY. Volume 43, Issue 8 of Medical Anthropology

So excited to see the special issue "Reproductive labourers" co-edited by Laura Perler and myself published at Medical Anthropology! On the value of the voices and experiences of egg donors and surrogates around the globe. Great diversity of contributions...🧵 www.tandfonline.com/toc/gmea20/4...

Contenta de començar l'any anunciant un altre curs! De la mà d'Un Estudio Propio, debatrem sobre els conflictes de la reproducció en el context actual. Gràcies per convidar-me! Info i inscripcions a: www.unestudiopropiolab.com/curso/el-pre...

El boom de la reproducció assistida: el cas de l’Estat espanyol

Ja es pot recuperar la sessió del curs sobre reproducció assistida i societat al qual vaig tenir el plaer de participar! La resta de sessions també ja disponibles. Gràcies IDRA per crear l'espai. open.spotify.com/episode/5IUs...

2x07 - Estilo de vida, medio ambiente y embarazo: una perspectiva antropológica de la responsabilidad y el autocuidado Conversaciones Afines · Episode

Muy contenta de compartir esta conversación con @drnatalivaldez! Hablamos del auge del interés por la epigenética en la salud maternoinfantil y de las responsabilidades raciales y de género que se reproducen en la creación de ese conocimiento

open.spotify.com/episode/3vCUgt…

Algunos apuntes para pensar el retraso de la maternidad y su intersección con las políticas, los costes emocionales y la industria de la fertilidad. Gracias @Diana_Oliver por contar conmigo!

elpais.com/mamas-papas/ac…

Tindré el gust de ser ponent en aquest curs. Una gran oportunitat per aprendre i debatre conjutament! Som-hi! 🚀

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Everything about this grant and the @_ISRF was just great. Do not miss on this opportunity if elegible!!

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Una de cada tres fecundaciones 'in vitro' ya se hace con óvulos de otra mujer: 'El silencio aún es total' España es el país europeo donde se registran más donaciones de óvulos y uno de los primeros del mundo

Algunes reflexions sobre el context espanyol de la reproducció assistida i el rol de les donants. Gràcies @bperezrod per comptar amb mi!

elperiodico.com/es/sanidad/202…

I made to California and I've become a Visiting Scholar at UC @CSTMSBerkeley! Do reach out if you happen to be around, I'll be here until June 😊

Join us at @EASAinfo in our hometown Barcelona July 2024!! CFP: "Undoing foetal viability: Negotiating and governing the boundaries of life and death" (P197) sponsored by @medanteurope. Submit your abstract before 22 January :

nomadit.co.uk/conference/eas…

Currazo de web la meva companya Vanessa Mantilla, on recull les experiències de dones que viuen amb #endometriosis en un format audiovisual preciós, així com recursos per a les persones afectades:

x.com/AFINBarcelona/… endometriosisafin.com

¡Seguimos buscando historias de personas que hayan donado óvulos o que lo hayan intentado! Para un proyecto audiovisual que pondrá sus voces en el centro. Agradecemos difusión!!🙏🙏
Link al formulario de contacto:#donaciondeovulos #ovodonacion #España

forms.gle/Zu5xFRW5ZSCZmk…

Demà estaré al Seminari del @genigruprecerca del @DepAntroUB presentant la meva recerca sobre donació d'òvuls a Espanya. Animeu-vos si us ve de gust!

For those without institutional access, 50 free online copies here:

shorturl.at/dnqF2

So happy to see this paper is out at @MedAnthropology! On the labor involved in undergoing an egg donation cycle focusing on the experiences of egg donors in Spain.#eggdonation #IVF #assitedreproduction

shorturl.at/tHPQ1

I am so excited about this! thank you so much for having me!!

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En los próximos meses estaré trabajando un proyecto documental sobre las experiencias de las donantes de óvulos que queremos hacer de manera muy sensible y cuidada 🙏 Agradecemos difusión!
Formulario de contacto👇🏼#donaciondeovulos #reproduccionasistida

forms.gle/i6epfstc2aHQu6…

Muy contenta de por fin dar salida a este proyecto!! Ocho episodios sobre diferentes aspectos de la donación de óvulos destinados a todo tipo de audiencias. En Spotify y Ivoox! #eggdonation #IVF #assistedreproduction #podcast

x.com/AFINBarcelona/…

Muy contenta de ver este artículo orginalmente publicado en @ConversationUK en @el_pais
Algunos apuntes sobre mi investigación con donantes para abrir líneas de debate.

elpais.com/salud-y-bienes…