![Baby's birth](/sites/default/files/styles/header/public/2024-08/bangui_msf.jpg?itok=gCKo5s3h)
From differentiated care to racial discrimination? The example of maternal health in France
Priscille Sauvegrain
On Thursday 19 September 2024 at 6.30pm, the Crash team will be delighted to welcome Priscille Sauvegrain for a conference on medical practices in maternal health in France and the role played by racial categories.
This event will take place at MSF headquarters, 34 avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019, Paris and will be broadcasted in English on this page and in French here. The registration form will soon be available on this page.
In France, the caesarean section rate among women born in African countries is well above average. How can this be explained? How does the categorisation of certain patients as ‘African’ affect the quality of care they receive? Is it medically justifiable to provide care that is differentiated according to origin?
Priscille Sauvegrain, a midwife and sociologist, University lecturer in midwifery, has been exploring these questions for the past twenty years in maternity units in the Paris region, using a wide range of survey methods: participant observations, interviews with patients and professionals, and statistical analyses. It gives an account of the obstacles and difficulties involved in studying these issues within a healthcare community that is very attached to equality of care, and also affected by the difficulties of the French public hospital system.
For MSF, an organisation that has been involved in debates about racism for several years now, Priscille Sauvegrain's work provides concrete food for thought on the subject, from the angle of medical practices and quality of care.
We will be delighted to welcome Priscille Sauvegrain for a conference in which she will review her research career and the main results of her investigations, followed by a time for discussion.
To cite this content :
Priscille Sauvegrain, “From differentiated care to racial discrimination? The example of maternal health in France”, 19 septembre 2024, URL : https://msf-crash.org/en/conferences-debates/differentiated-care-racial-discrimination-example-maternal-health-france
If you want to criticize or develop this content, you can find us on twitter or directly on our site.
ContributePast events
![conf nicolas mariot](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2022-01/header%20media%20VF_0.png?h=c5373e9b&itok=TT_F0gLM)
Motivations for mass violence: different interpretations
10/03/2019 - 04:00 PM 06:00 PMConference – debate, Thursday, 3 October 2019, 6-8pm, 1st floor meeting room at MSF, 8 rue Saint Sabin. Streaming and simultaneous translation into English available.
What turns ordinary men into killers? The CRASH team invited you to a conference – debate with the sociologist and historian, Nicolas Mariot, author of an article entitled « Faut-il être motivé pour tuer? Sur quelques explications aux violences de guerre » (Genèses, n°53, 2003, p. 154-177) and books such as “Face à la persécution. 991 Juifs dans la guerre" (with Claire Zalc, Paris, Odile Jacob, 2010), “Tous unis dans la tranchée ? 1914-1918, les intellectuels rencontrent le peuple" (Paris, Seuil, 2013). Nicolas Mariot presented two different interpretations of motivations for mass violence in the 20th century, drawn from a series of studies and surveys on the subject.
![conf eleanor davey](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2022-01/header%20media%20VF_3.png?itok=ogCl8nxn)
Third-Worldism and Sans-Frontiérisme 1954-1988
04/11/2019 - 04:30 PM 06:30 PMEleanor Davey, historian of ideas and humanitarianism, senior lecturer at the Humanitarian and Conflict Research Institute, University of Manchester, discusses her book, Idealism Beyond Borders. The French Revolutionary Left and the Rise of Humanitarianism, 1954-1988, devoted to the intellectual history of sans-frontiérisme and Third-Worldism, in France, from the Algerian war to the early years of Médecins Sans Frontières.
![conf caroline iz](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2022-01/header%20media_5.png?itok=kxwYiz2j)
Healing foreigners in France: The State and the civil society organisations from the 80s to the 90s
12/17/2018 - 05:00 PM 07:00 PMThe CRASH team invited you to the debate-conference “Healing foreigners in France: The State and the civil society organisations from the 80s to the 90s” on Monday 17th of December 2018 from 6 to 8pm, in the 1rst floor room at the 8 rue Saint-Sabin. We hosted Caroline Izambert, who recently defended, at the EHESS, her PhD thesis focusing on the foreigners’ access to healthcare in France. Her title: “Heal foreigners?” The State and the civil society organisations for the health coverage of the poor and foreigners in France from the 1980s to the present day.
![conf boudou](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2022-01/header%20media_6.png?itok=cW_A51Kq)
Borders and Hospitality
11/26/2018 - 05:00 PM 07:00 PMConference/debate with Benjamin Boudou, political scientist and researcher at the Max Planck institute.
![Immunisés ? Un nouveau regard sur les vaccins - Rencontre avec Lise Barnéoud De gauche à droite, Michaël Neuman, Lise Barnéoud et Emmanuel Baron lors de la conférence du Crash du 5 décembre 2017 sur la vaccination](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2017-12/msf-crash-conference-vaccination.jpg?h=fd1e4f10&itok=dWCnPNVe)
Immunization: new perspectives on vaccines - Conference with Lise Barnéoud
12/05/2017 - 05:00 PM 07:00 PMWho profits from vaccination? Individuals? Society? Companies? Is vaccination efficient? Is it dangerous? Profitable? What are the factors influencing public opinion in this domain? Lise Barnéoud, science journalist and author of Immunisés ? Un nouveau regard sur les vaccins, has engaged in an investigation revealing multiple - and sometimes contradictory - realities observed in the French vaccination sector. She has carried out her investigation from three distinct viewpoints: the one of a mother who needs to decide whether to vaccinate her children or not; of a journalist leading an enquiry; and of a scientist analyzing how facts are built.
Lise Barnéoud was a Crash guest speaker at a conference on vaccination held on December 5, 2017. A discussion with Epicentre, Crash and the MSF Medical Department allowed us to exchange views on vaccinal policy, which remains a cornerstone of MSF operations and a recurring subject of discussion and controversy.
![Humanitarian Anthropology - Conference with Sharon Abramowitz Sharon Abramowitz and Michaël Neuman during MSF Crash conference about humanitarian anthropology](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2017-10/msf-crash-conference-anthropologie-humanitaire_0.jpg?h=b9d1b362&itok=5um4CeUc)
Humanitarian anthropology : conference with Sharon Abramowitz
10/23/2017 - 04:00 PM 06:00 PMSharon Abramowitz is an anthropologist and a visiting researcher at the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University, co-editor of recently published Medical humanitarianism. Ethnographies of practice. She has devoted much of her work to responding to epidemics - most recently in Ebola, and in West Africa, Liberia in particular.
During the conference organized by MSF-Crash on 23 October 2017, she discussed the contribution of medical anthropology to humanitarian action as well as her latest book and most recent projects.