Reconstructing Motherhood and Disability in the Age of Perfect Babies

Gail Heidi Landsman (Ph.D., Catholic University) is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Albany, SUNY, where she teaches courses in gender, reproduction, and disability. She is the author of numerous book chapters, articles in peer-reviewed journals, and a previous book Sovereignty and Symbol. She is also the mother of three children, one of whom has cerebral palsy.

• 1: Introduction 2: Doing Everything Right: Choice, Control and Mother Blame 3: Diminished Motherhood 4: Mothers, Doctors and Developmental Delays: On Personhood and the Emplotment of Children’s Lives 5: The Child as Giver: Mothers’ Critique of the Commodification of Babies 6: Mothers, Models, and Disability Rights

"I think the audience for this book would be very wide from interested lay persons to medical anthropologists/sociologists. Also this is an important topic for medical professionals and public health scholars. It does offer a critical perspective as well – which does not dominate the book - but is very important for many scholars. I also think it is highly readable and would be of interest to students – upper level undergraduates to graduate students (for example I would use this book in my Medical anthropology course - 300 level)." Michael J. Oldani, Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater