Skip to main content
Log in

Relative bodies of knowledge: Therapeutic dualism and maternal–foetal individuation

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Social Theory & Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A strong body of knowledge attests to the fact that Australian women are using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) at increasing rates. However, use of CAM in the context of maternity care is variable and distinctive because of heightened sensitivity to risk and the complexities that arise in managing maternal and foetal well-being concurrently. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 40 women who had recently given birth residing in a major city in Australia, we trace their use of CAM and biomedicine through a sequence of important health-care events during their pregnancies and up until the point of labour. We show that these women’s engagement with CAM and biomedicine depicts a pattern whereby CAM is used to ensure the women’s well-being while biomedicine is used to ensure a safe and healthy baby. We employ the concept of therapeutic dualism to analyse how this form of medical pluralism reproduces contemporary forms of pregnant embodiment – specifically the ontological separation of mother and foetus. However, we also highlight how this dualism is inexact. That is, bodies of medical knowledge may be separated and combined at specific points during pregnancy, and so too can the foetal and maternal body.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams, J., Sibbritt, D., Easthope, G. and Young, A. (2003) The profile of women who consult alternative health practitioners in Australia. Medical Journal of Australia 179 (6): 297–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adams, J., Sibbritt, D. and Lui, C.-W. (2011) The use of complementary and alternative medicine during pregnancy: A longitudinal study of Australian women. Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care 38 (3): 200–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anspach, R. (1988) Notes on the sociology of medical discourse: The language of case presentation. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour 29 (4): 357–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008) Complementary therapies. In: Australian Social Trends 2008. Cat. no. 4102.0 Canberra, Australia: Australian Bureau of Statistics, http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Chapter5202008, accessed 4 January 2014.

  • Baarts, C. and Pedersen, I. (2009) Derivative benefits: Exploring the body through complementary and alternative medicine. Sociology of Health & Illness 31 (5): 719–733.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, P., Bloom, B. and Nahin, R. (2008) Complementary and alternative medicine use among adults and children: United States, 2007. National Health Statistics Reports. no. 12. Hyattsville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.

  • Bishop, F. and Yardley, L. (2004) Constructing agency in treatment decisions. Health 8 (4): 465–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bix, A. (2004) Engendering alternatives: Women’s health care choices and feminist medical rebellions. In: R. Johnston (ed.) The Politics of Healing: Histories of Alternative Medicine in Twentieth-Century North America. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Broom, A. and Tovey, P. (2007) The dialectical tension between individuation and depersonalization in cancer patients’ mediation of complementary, alternative and biomedical cancer treatments. Sociology 41 (6): 1021–1039.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charmaz, K. (2006) Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connor, L. (2004) Relief, risk and renewal: Mixed therapy regimens in an Australian suburb. Social Science and Medicine 59 (8): 1695–1705.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coulter, I. and Willis, E. (2007) Explaining the growth of complementary and alternative medicine. Health Sociology Review 16 (3–4): 214–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doel, M. and Segrott, J. (2003) Self, health, and gender: Complementary and alternative medicine in the British mass media. Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 10 (2): 131–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ezzy, D. (2002) Qualitative Analysis: Practice and Innovation. Australia, Crows Nest, New South Wales: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frawley, J., Adams, J., Sibbritt, D., Steele, A., Broom, A. and Gallois, C. (2013) Prevalence and determinants of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use during pregnancy: Results from a nationally representative sample of Australian pregnant women. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 53 (4): 347–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glover, D.D., Amonkar, M., Rybeck, B.F. and Tracy, T.S. (2003) Prescription, over-the-counter, and herbal medicine use in a rural, obstetric population. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 188 (4): 1039–1045.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Golden, J. (2005) Message in a Bottle: The Making of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanssen, B., Grimsgaard, S., Launsoslash, L., Foslashnneboslash, V., Falkenberg, T. and Rusmussen, N. (2005) Use of complementary and alternative medicine in the Scandinavian countries. Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care 23 (1): 57–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, G., Connor, L., Bisits, A. and Higginbotham, N. (2004) ‘Seeing the baby’: Pleasures and dilemmas of ultrasound technologies for primiparous Australian women. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 18 (1): 23–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hepner, D., Harnett, M., Segall, S., Camann, W., Bader, A. and Tsen, L. (2002) Herbal medicine use in parturients. Anesthesia & Analgesia 94 (3): 690–693.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, Z., McNally, L. and Sullivan, E. (2011) Australia’s Mothers and Babies 2009. Perinatal Statistics Series. Sydney, Australia: AIHW National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Locock, L., Alexander, J. and Rozmovits, L. (2008) Women’s responses to nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. Midwifery 24 (2): 143–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luff, D. and Thomas, K. (2000) Getting somewhere, feeling cared for: Patient perspectives on complementary and alternative medicine. Complementary Therapies in Medicine 8 (4): 253–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, D. (ed.) (1999) Risk and the ontology of pregnant embodiment. Risk and Sociocultural Theory: New Directions and Perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, D. (2012) ‘Precious cargo’: Foetal subjects, risk and reproductive citizenship. Critical Public Health 22 (3): 329–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, D. and Schmied, V. (2013) Splitting bodies/selves: Women’s concepts of embodiment at the moment of birth. Sociology of Health and Illness 35 (6): 828–841.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maats, F. and Crowther, C. (2002) Patterns of vitamin, mineral and herbal supplement use prior to and during pregnancy. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 42 (5): 494–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marteau, T. et al (1992) Psychological models in predicting uptake of prenatal screening. Psychology & Health 6 (1–2): 13–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mclean, S. (2005) ‘The illness is part of the person’: Discourses of blame, individual responsibility and individuation at a centre for spiritual healing in the north of England. Sociology of Health and Illness 27 (5): 628–648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mellin, G. and Katzenstein, M. (1962) The saga of Thalidomide: Neuropathy to embryopathy, with case reports of congenital anomalies. The New England Journal of Medicine 267: 1184–1193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meurk, C., Broom, A., Adams, J. and Sibbritt, D. (2012) Bodies of knowledge: Nature, holism and women’s plural health practices. Health 17 (3): 300–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mol, A. (2002) The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. (2011) What is complementary and alternative medicine? //nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam, accessed 1 November 2011.

  • Potter, D. (2012) Drawing the line at drinking for two: Governmentality, biopolitics, and risk in state legislation on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. In: J. Netherland (ed.) Critical Perspectives on Addiction. (Advances in Medical Sociology, Vol. 14) Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 129–153.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Re, W. (2003) Herbal healing in pregnancy: Women’s experiences. Journal of Herbal Pharmacotherapy 3 (4): 17–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruzek, S. (1978) The Women’s Health Movement. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Searle, J. (1996) Fearing the worst – Why do pregnant women feel ‘at risk’? Australia and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 36 (3): 279–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, U. (1992) Complementary Medicine Today. Practitioners and Patients. London: Tavistock/Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sointu, E. (2006) Healing bodies, feeling bodies: Embodiment and alternative and complementary health practices. Social Theory and Health 4 (3): 203–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sointu, E. (2011) Detraditionalisation, gender, and alternative and complementary medicines. Sociology of Health & Illness 33 (3): 356–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Squier, S. (1996) Fetal subjects and maternal objects: Reproductive technology and the new fetal/maternal relation. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 21 (5): 515–535.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tovey, P. and Adams, J. (2001) Primary care as intersecting social worlds. Social Science and Medicine 52 (5): 695–706.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsui, B., Dennehy, C. and Tsourounis, C. (2001) A survey of dietary supplement use during pregnancy at an academic medical center. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 185 (2): 433–437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Upsdell, M. and Jaye, C. (2011) Engaging with complementary and alternative medicine in general practice. Journal of Primary Health Care 3 (1): 29–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zadoroznyj, M. (2001) Birth and the ‘reflexive consumer’: Trust, risk and medical dominance in obstetric encounters. Journal of Sociology 37 (2): 117–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This article is based on research conducted as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, the University of Newcastle and the University of Queensland. We are grateful to the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing for funding and to the women who provided the survey data. We thank the Australian Research Council (ARC) for funding the research via a discovery Project Grant (DP1094765) and for funding Associate Professor Alex Broom via a Future Fellowship (FT100100294). We also thank the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for funding Professor Jon Adams via a Career Development Fellowship. Thanks to Mary-Anne Paton for her copy-editing and final preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carla Meurk.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Meurk, C., Broom, A. & Adams, J. Relative bodies of knowledge: Therapeutic dualism and maternal–foetal individuation. Soc Theory Health 12, 159–178 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/sth.2013.26

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/sth.2013.26

Keywords

Navigation