Invisibility or Visibility in Intimate Care at the Workplace? Examining the Use of Breast Pumps

Abstract

Advances in intimate care technologies and on-body wearables are disrupting how and where we think about and care for our bodies. The boundaries between private and public are increasingly porous. This offers new sites for studying intimate care as technology-use-in-practice. We present a qualitative study on the use of breast pumps in the workplace, based on semi-structured interviews with 19 individuals. Through this, we contribute an illustration of the complexities in carrying out intimate care work at the workplace and what it means to be pumping at the workplace. Our analysis unpacks (in)visibility as a crucial tension in the use of breast pumps in the workplace. We discuss how (in)visibility of personal medical devices plays a mediating role in how individuals exercise bodily rights, and the norms of who fits into professional settings.