The Centre for Social Sciences Research (CSSR) and the  Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa  (IDCPPA) at the University of Cape Town invite you to join us for a lunchtime seminar on 11 November 2025 at 12:45pm. The seminar will be presented by Dr Nicole M. Daniels.

About the Seminar:

Ultrasound scans as risk rituals in obstetric prenatal care in South Africa

I examine collective maternity risk understandings and practices from the dual-perspective of obstetricians ano pregnant persons, focusing on the role of ultrasound scans. Contributing to socio-cultural theories on collective risks, I draw upon data from a two and a half year, multisite ethnography that traced fourteen women and seven obstetricians' experiences of private-sector childbirth in Cape Town.

My findings show that ultrasounds, as habitual practices, are well-established as safe, yet generate medico-legal risks for obstetricians and delivery risks for pregnant women, while managing risks to the unborn. The unborn, culturally sanctioned as precious, emerges as central to the purposes of ultrasound risk rituals that warrant both self-protective precaution and collective duty on behalf of both social groups. Directed by the same injunctions but for markedly different ends, this dual-perspective suggests an important addition to the risk rituals literature, while adding further important insights into the literature on ultrasounds.

By examining the ultrasound scan as risk ritual with a dual-function, the unborn as the object of the risk ritual is both at-risk and poses risks to the groups taking part. Legal processes, risk aversion, and technocratic obstetric care delineate the unborn as a risk that 1) places obstetricians in danger of litigation for negligence 2) places women in danger of delivery by c-section within high-risk birthing cultures, and 3) reconfigures birthing intervention as normal and necessary.

Speakers

Dr Nicole Daniels is a medical sociologist specializing in childbirth, health inequalities and feminist, qualitative research methodologies. She is an engaged scholar with experience as a doula, Thinking environment practitioner, working alongside health practitioners to address obstetric violence. She is currently at Alignd where she is part of the Alchemy Lab developing and innovating new value-based care programmes in maternity and chronic kidney disease. Also an Honorary Research Associate at the Adolescent Accelerate Research Hub.

  11 November 2025
  12:45 - 14:00 SAST
   CSSR Seminar Room, 4.29 Robert Leslie Social Science Building, UCT

Hosted by the Centre for Social Science Research and the Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa