Discourses Of Experience Of Pregnancy In Low Income Women Attending Katutura And Central Hospitals’ Antenatal Clinics In Windhoek

Abstract

This thesis explores and discusses the discourses drawn on by pregnant women in their construction of their ‘selves’ in pregnancy. The study was qualitative in nature, in order to understand the women’s experience from their context and to allow for their individual constructions to come forth. The aim of the study was to explore firstly, which discourses the pregnant women draw on during their pregnancy and secondly, how the women construct themselves as pregnant beings. The sample included eighteen women, who are from a low-income background attending Katutura and Central Hospital’s antenatal clinics. Transcripts of tape-recorded interviews, comprised of open ended questions, were analyzed using discourse analysis. Discourse analysis is a method of deconstructive reading and interpretation of a text, which brings to the fore marginalized views. Five dominant discourses were identified, namely the Medical Discourse, the Discourse of Dependence, the Discourse of Embodiment, the Discourse of Ownership of Pregnancy and the Discourse of Motherhood. Participants draw on these discourses in order to construct themselves as pregnant beings. Furthermore, the positioning of the women within each of these discourses is traced with ambivalence. The task of navigating the experience of pregnancy and constructing the ‘self’ as pregnant is mapped out in differing positions. This is further obscured by the shifting of agency between the women and their environments. Participants’ constructions shed light on the complex interplay of positioning and agency in constructions of ‘self’-as-pregnant. It is concluded that the ability to position the self on a continuum within a Discourse, as opposed to rigidly positioning the self, allows women a less stressful experience of pregnancy.