Tracking for Two: Surveillance and Self-Care in Pregnancy Apps Available to Purchase

Drawing on histories of 1970s feminist praxis positioning DIY self-knowledge as self-care—a way of wresting control of reproductive technologies and expertise away from a racist, colonialist, and sexist medical establishment, as well as longer histories of self-care as an instrument of surveillance and productivity enhancement within the life insurance industry—and through a textual and sociotechnical analysis of contemporary pregnancy-tracking apps, this chapter argues that such apps replace institutional and kinship-based forms of care work in the United States, particularly for those without access to adequate medical services, positioning self-tracking as a form of self-care.