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Subjective meanings of 'unintended' pregnancy: interviews from understanding fertility management in contemporary Australia
journal contribution
posted on 2017-01-01, 00:00 authored by M Kirkman, C Stubber, H Rowe, Sara HoltonSara Holton, C Bayly, L Jordan, J McBain, K McNamee, V Sinnott, J FisherUnintended pregnancy can be difficult to identify and conceptualise. We aimed to understand how unintended pregnancies are constructed, explained and situated in a reproductive life. A total of 41 women and 7 men aged 20-50 years were interviewed in depth. Transcripts were analysed using iterative hermeneutic techniques informed by narrative theory. Of 34 participants who had been pregnant or had a partner in pregnancy, 12 women and 1 man described 23 'unintended' pregnancies, about half of which ended in abortion. Their accounts reveal that an unintended pregnancy is identified subjectively, that the same pregnancy may be identified by one partner in the pregnancy as unintended and by the other as intended, and that a researcher's supposedly objective assessment of an unintended pregnancy may be inconsistent with the assessment of the woman who experienced it. A pejorative discourse was evident, predominantly among participants who did not report having an unintended pregnancy: women use an 'unintended' pregnancy to entrap men. Accounts from five participants reporting an unintended pregnancy were selected for illustration. An appreciation of the role such a pregnancy might play in an individual life requires a nuanced understanding of the complexity of human experience and a resistance to simple binary categorisation.
History
Journal
Culture, health and sexualityVolume
19Issue
2Pagination
179 - 193Publisher
Taylor & FrancisLocation
Abingdon, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
1369-1058eISSN
1464-5351Language
engPublication classification
C Journal article; C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2016, Informa UK LimitedUsage metrics
Categories
Keywords
AustraliaUnintended pregnancyfertility managementin-depth interviewsAbortion, InducedAdultAge FactorsContraceptive DevicesFemaleFertilityInterviews as TopicPregnancyPregnancy, UnplannedPregnancy, UnwantedSocioeconomic FactorsSocial SciencesFamily StudiesSocial Sciences, BiomedicalBiomedical Social SciencesNATIONAL-SURVEYUNITED-STATESNEW-ORLEANSWOMENINTENTIONSHEALTHCONTRACEPTIONEXPERIENCESPOPULATIONPREVALENCESociology