Based on qualitative interviews with 51 single pregnant women, this article explores how participants negotiated encounters in public in an Irish context. It is argued that tensions in some encounters that women experienced exhibited features of the phenomenon defined as mutual pretense awareness, first identified by Glaser and Strauss in their work on dying. As in Glaser and Strauss's work, mutual pretense awareness often gave way to open awareness, particularly toward the end of the gestation period when the state of pregnancy became highly visible. The shift from mutual pretense awareness to open awareness had implications for women's mental health status insofar as openness about the pregnancy served to moderate stress levels associated with some public interactions. Goffman's conceptualization of stigma mediates the analysis, where the management of information and tension is significant in negotiating encounters.
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