‘I Am Not a Patient,and I Am Not a Child’: The Institutionalization and Experience of Pregnancy

Abstract

In this article the focus is on how the relation between the self and body is formulated in medical/healthcare discourses and how these affect the experiences of pregnant women. I draw on data collected during research on the self-image of young mothers, analyses of booklets and handouts distributed to pregnant women, and interviews conducted both on individual and group bases with young mothers. I argue that the normalizing tendencies identified in the booklets strip women of their agency. However, pregnant women do not always position themselves in terms of maternal normativities. Their accounts of pregnancy and childbirth both support and challenge the knowledge that underpins the practices of medical/healthcare institutions. Their position as agents matters a great deal for them and affects the extent to which they experience pregnancy and childbirth positively or negatively.