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Surveillance of risks in everyday life: The agency of pregnant women and its limitations

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Abstract

Risk management in pregnant women's everyday lives represents a central feature of the experience of pregnancy. We aim to analyse how the agency of pregnant women and the decisions they make are affected by social influences that reinforce medical norms and moral expectations towards motherhood. With data from a qualitative study conducted in Switzerland, we describe diverging positions on professional norms, distinguishing women who strive to eliminate uncertainty and ensure strict control of the biological development of their pregnancy from women who resist medical norms. Concrete resistance through personal bargaining with the normative framework was reported and justified through a range of arguments, allowing individual representations to match dominant expectations. Concurrently, we highlight the fact that social reinforcement of medical norms and moral expectations regarding proper motherhood limit possible deviations. This study contributes to the analysis of lay strategies towards health risks, emphasizing the articulation of agency and social influences that characterize the extension of risk surveillance in society.

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Notes

  1. Especially regarding toxoplasmosis, an infectious disease caused by a parasite, which can generate health problems for the foetus. Precautions regarding food selection and modes of preparation can reduce the risk of getting the disease.

  2. This pluridisciplinary project, funded by the Swiss National Foundation for Research, associated scholars working in law, sociology and bioethics. The sociological part of the study encompassed interviews with pregnant women, gynaecologists-obstetricians, and midwives (Manaï et al, 2010).

  3. Pseudonyms were attributed to all interviewees.

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Acknowledgements

Most of the interviews were conducted by Raphaël Hammer and Samuele Cavalli from the University of Geneva and I thank them for their vital contribution to this research. Raphaël Hammer commented on an earlier draft of this paper and provided very valuable input. I also would like to thank David Gerber (University of Geneva) for editing the English language in the text.

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  1. Département de sociologie, Université de Genève, 40, bd du Pont d’Arve, Genève 4, CH - 1211, Switzerland

    Claudine Burton-Jeangros

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Appendix

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Table A1

Table A1 Characteristics of respondents (n=50)
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Burton-Jeangros, C. Surveillance of risks in everyday life: The agency of pregnant women and its limitations. Soc Theory Health 9, 419–436 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/sth.2011.15

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