Caroline Chautems is a social and medical anthropologist and a Fulbright Visiting Scholar from Switzerland. For her current research project, titled “Queer reproductive justice and doula care in California”, she investigates how doulas impact the perinatal care experience of queer parents in California, a state where doula care is well established and a leading LGBTQ+ reprohub.

Her work centers on reproduction, parenthood, and sexualities. Through her ethnographic fieldworks, she explores how healthcare providers and birth workers support reproductive processes and the transition to parenthood, framed by local cultural, political, and economic contexts, with an emphasis on gender dynamics. Additionally, she investigates the stratification of access to healthcare and health information, considering factors such as gender identity, sexual and affective orientation, race, literacy, and digital literacy.

She is the author of Negotiated Breastfeeding. Holistic Postpartum Care and Embodied Parenting (Routledge 2022).