Redefining And Contesting Notions of Pregnancy

In this week’s readings, the focus was put on pregnancy and how notions of pregnancy are socially constructed.  In all three of the assigned readings, the way pregnancy was viewed and adapted was not solely because of medical and scientific discoveries, but rather had more to do with the social climate.  Science was playing its part in the cases of; physical activity during pregnancy, natural births and thalidomide, however women and the culture did more in defining and contesting ideas of pregnancy.

In the case of the Thalidomide situation, Barbara Clow in ‘An Illness of Nine Months’ Duration’ , explains that doctors and scientist were all playing a part in the rise of pharmaceutical drug use and were shrouded in greed trying to turn a profit.  However, that does not tell the whole story, rather the social climate made thalidomide so popular; as faith in medicine in the postwar years was extremely high, perceptions of pregnancy, acceptance of increased pharmaceutical drug use, and increased gender roles of beauty all contributed heavily to the extreme use of thalidomide.[i]

The medical discoveries of pregnancy in the context of physical activity proves further that pregnancy is socially constructed rather than a prescribed ideal by medical professionals.   Shannon Jette illuminates in Exercising Caution, the morphing notions around exercising while pregnant started and originated within ordinary women rather than with medical studies and professionals.  As she explains the history behind the changes, she shows the many ways that women challenged the norms of limiting physical activity while pregnant. She states “second wave feminism, the fitness boom, and the neo-liberal push for personal responsibility for health” were large factors and “in this context of change and uncertainty that individuals in the field of exercise science began to engage in a careful examination of exercise during pregnancy.”[ii]

In the final stage of pregnancy and child birth, the ideas surrounding a “natural birth” were not defined by doctors with rigid meaning, rather it was individualized from mother to mother. Science once again was not the main motor in defining what a natural birth looks like, rather it was the social atmosphere that determined that outcome.  Each mother had different circumstances for their births, however despite these differences all the mothers that used midwives in order to achieve a “natural birth”, saw the outcome as a natural birth.  Even when a mother ended up in a hospital or took an epidural they still classified their child’s birth as “natural.”  This idea of natural birth was a social construction not a classification made by a medical professional. [iii]

Pregnancy for Hutterite women was declining in the 1970’s due to the increased use of birth control.  The increased use of birth control was not prescribed heavily by their medical professionals, rather, Hutterite women used it to gain more control in their lives within a patriarchal system.  Much like the other articles many notions surrounding pregnancy are socially prescribed, and no different is this situation.  The culture surrounding Hutterites in the rest of Canada was pushing against the Hutterites prescribed gender norms, as it was the social climate that brought the increased use of birth control not ,medical professionals.[iv]

Pregnancy as a social construct is clearly shown throughout all these articles, as many of the perceptions revolving around pregnancy were a direct result of the social atmosphere.  Not to say medical opinions and information was not a mover in perceptions however it was not the core mover. The next couple of weeks the theme is defining and contesting illness, and pregnancy fits in.  Norms around pregnancy were constantly being contested and being re-defined as the cultural environment adapted.

[i] Clow, Barbara, “‘An Illness of Nine Months’ Duration’: Pregnancy and Thalidomide Use in Canada and the United States,” in Feldberg, Ladd-Taylor, Li and McPherson, Women, Health, and Nation, Montreal” McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003: 45-66.

[ii] Jette, “Exercising Caution: The Production of Medical Knowledge about Physical Exertion during Pregnancy”, Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 28, 2 (2011): 299.

[iii] MacDonald, Margaret, “Gender Expectations: Natural Bodies and Natural Birth in the New Midwifery in Canada, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 20, 2 (2006): 235-256.

[iv] Ingoldsby, Bron B., and Max E. Stanton. “The Hutterites and Fertility Control.” Journal Of Comparative Family Studies 19, no. 1 (Spring 1988): 137-142.

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