{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,10]],"date-time":"2026-07-10T03:33:54Z","timestamp":1783654434725,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med Humanities"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,13]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Separated by a gap of 27 years, Anna Reynold\u2019s <jats:italic>Jordan<\/jats:italic> (1992) and Gary Owen\u2019s <jats:italic>Iphigenia in Splott<\/jats:italic> (2015) offer, on the surface, dramaturgically similar critiques of the impact of poverty on motherhood. Both plays are critically acclaimed monologues for women, which describe the death of a baby following inadequate interventions from health and\/or social care services. This article examines the different theatrical contexts for these plays and offers a situated reading of the representation of maternal crisis in circumstances of social deprivation. When considered in parallel, <jats:italic>Jordan<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Iphigenia in Splott<\/jats:italic> reveal the persistent vulnerability faced by low-income mothers and would-be mothers under conditions of Thatcherite and austerity governing. In the context of the health humanities, they reveal how austerity government shapes the lives of women through the scarcity of adequate maternal health and social care services. By placing Owen\u2019s play in dialogue with the 1990s feminist monologue, I suggest that Owen posits a dramaturgical through-line between post-2008 austerity policies and the socio-political conditions that concerned second wave feminists. <jats:italic>Iphigenia in Splott<\/jats:italic> highlights the post-2008 crisis of care and demonstrates its continuity with forms of social marginalisation, housing precarity and \u2018hollowing out\u2019 introduced under Thatcher and thematised two decades earlier in <jats:italic>Jordan<\/jats:italic>.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/medhum-2024-013094","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,21]],"date-time":"2025-01-21T02:45:15Z","timestamp":1737427515000},"page":"268-275","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Impossible motherhood: a health humanities reading of two monologues for women"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"51","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0040-1192","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Leah","family":"Sidi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of European Languages and Cultures, UCL, London, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025102010150830000_51.2.268.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1509\/jppm.15.140"},{"key":"2025102010150830000_51.2.268.2","unstructured":"Armistead C . 1992. \u201cJordan.\u201d Guardian 7th May in Theatre Record 25 April \u2013 5 May 1992): 510"},{"key":"2025102010150830000_51.2.268.3","unstructured":"Aston E . 2013. Feminist Views On the English Stage: Women Playwrights, 1990-2000. Cambridge University Press."},{"issue":"2","key":"2025102010150830000_51.2.268.4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"292","DOI":"10.1515\/jcde-2017-0027","article-title":"\u201cMoving Women Centre Stage: Structures of Feminist-Tragic Feeling\u201d","volume":"5","author":"Aston","year":"2017","journal-title":"Journal of Contemporary Drama in English"},{"key":"2025102010150830000_51.2.268.5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aston E . 2020. Restaging Feminisms. Palgrave.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-40589-2"},{"key":"2025102010150830000_51.2.268.6","unstructured":"Bano T . 2016. \u201cGary Owen: Now Is Not the Time to Be Subtle\u201d. Exeunt Magazine. Available from: https:\/\/exeuntmagazine.com\/features\/gary-owen-this-is-not-a-time-to-be-subtle\/"},{"key":"2025102010150830000_51.2.268.7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Berlant L. G . 2008. 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