The Road to Visibility: IVF and Motherhood Journey of Filipino Influencers

Abstract

Childbearing via in vitro fertilization (IVF) was taboo for a long time in the Philippines despite being available in the Philippines since 1996 and the signing of the Republic Health Law back in 2013 (Dupont, 2013). In this chapter, the author examines how IVF is imagined, presented, and accepted in the Philippine context by looking at selected case studies of Filipino influencers who opted to bear children via IVF. The author explores these through analyses of selected YouTube videos and Facebook posts through the lens of visibility labor which refers to the activities done by influencers to “the work enacted to flexibly demonstrate gradients of self-conspicuousness in digital or physical spaces depending on intention or circumstance for favourable ends” (Abidin, 2016). The author also examines the comments sections of these selected videos and posts through web scraping to get a glimpse of the reception to the journeys and struggles of these public figures. The author argues that through the visibility labor of influencers, the phenomenon of childbearing via IVF is not only promoted as a viable, if not acceptable procreative process, but also perpetuated as an in/accessible procedure in the Philippines.

Citation

Cabbuag, S.I. (2023), "The Road to Visibility: IVF and Motherhood Journey of Filipino Influencers", Gregorio, V.L., Batan, C.M. and Blair, S.L. (Ed.) Resilience and Familism: The Dynamic Nature of Families in the Philippines (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 23), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 21-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1530-353520230000023002