The Cost of Labour
Natalie Kon-Yu
The Cost of Labour
Natalie Kon-Yu
Natalie Kon-yu was nine weeks pregnant when the trembling began. Two weeks later she checked herself into a mental health unit. Rather than a woman with a health concern, the GPs, nurses and psychiatrists saw Natalie as a vessel carrying precious cargo. The loss of agency carried on through her pregnancy, childbirth and early years as a mother. Natalie discovered that she was far from alone. In fact, her experience typifies the harsh inequalities that weigh heavily on child-bearing women, as well as the devaluation of what is still perceived as women’s work.
Drawing on personal narratives, history, social research and interviews with a range of Australian and international experts, The Cost of Labour recognises the difficulties and hurdles parents encounter in Australia today. With bracing clarity and verve, Natalie Kon-yu tackles the institutions, expectations and ideologies that keep us all hostage to a dynamic unfit for contemporary society.
We are, she reveals, at a time of momentous cultural change when women are more invested than ever in working outside the home yet are still, above all else, expected by society to be the primary carers. The pressure is building and the cost on families is stacking up. Something has to give.
Review
Rosalind McClintock
As a feminist, birthing parent and mother, The Cost of Labour validates much of what I have thought, felt and experienced since I entered the foetal abyss. Beyond just validation, it offers facts, figures, case studies, historical context and anecdotes that will help me shape stronger arguments for when my head spins and I can no longer contain the white-hot fury of wondering just how can anyone balance motherhood, career and self?
In The Cost of Labour, Melbourne academic Natalie Kon-yu tells her story, from before her first pregnancy to now. It is both extremely personal and universal (to a point), incorporating memoir, interviews and her academic research. She elucidates the way in which she, and her interviewees, have been let down by the health system and societal power structures in general. Though these revelations weren’t earth- shattering to me, I think there is a portion of the population who would find what is discussed here shocking, and would gain insight into the flawed and patronising system surrounding pregnancy, labour and ‘motherhood’. Kon-yu shows how this system aims to control bodies, lives and uphold unequal power structures. This book will hopefully, at the very least, cause some to pause before using language like ‘precious cargo’ or commenting on how a child is being fed, looked after or reared.
For me, Kon-yu’s intersectional approach also made me stop and look at my feminism as a white woman, and feminism as a whole. This book asks necessary questions about how white feminism’s advocacy for prominence at work and in the public sphere, while necessary and important, can be rooted in narrow views that also let many people down.Buy this for your friends who have given birth, so they know they arenot alone; for anyone who is thinking about having a child, so they may better advocate for themselves; and, perhaps most importantly, for those who will find the contents a revelation. The Cost of Labour is sure to encourage more honest conversations around what it is to grow, birth and continue to nourish a child in today’s society. I will remember much of this book and know I am not alone.
Rosalind McClintock is the marketing manager at Readings.
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