Lia Won't: Agency in the Retrospective Pregnancy Narratives of Low‐Income Brazilian Women

Abstract

RESUMEN O rápido declínio das taxas de fecundidade no Brasil, de uma média de 6 bebês nascidos vivos por mulher em 1965 a 2,5 em 1996, occorreu num contexto no qual o aborto induzido é ilegal e a esterilização não foi autorizada pelo Código de Ética Médica antes de 1997. No entanto, mais de um quarto de brasileiras, unidas e solteiras, escolhem a esterilização até os 30 anos de idade. Esta pesquisa analisa narrativas de gravidez de 30 brasileiras de baixa renda, com 25 a 50 anos de idade, com a finalidade de entender como elas representam sua própria atuação (agency) e a atuação de outros, em relação a decisões sobre a gravidez. O protocolo de análise de agência (agency), tal como ela é representada nas narrativas, comprende três categorias analíticas: a agência do outro, em gravidezes não planejadas; a agência recuperadora–quando a mulher reassume o controle por meio do aborto induzido ou da aceitação da maternidade; e a agência antecipada, no qual a sua decisão incide sobre o futuro, por meio da esterilização. Brazil's rapid fertility decline, from six births per woman in 1965 to 2.5 in 1996, occurred in a context where abortion is illegal and sterilization sanctioned (until 1997) by the medical code of ethics. Still, more than one‐quarter of Brazilian women, both single and in stable union, choose sterilization by age 30. This research analyzed 30 pregnancy narratives of low‐income Brazilian women aged 25–50 to understand how they represent their agency, and the agency of others, in relation to pregnancy decisions. Three analytical categories comprise my method for examination of agency as represented in narrative: proximal (the agency of others) in unintended pregnancy; recuperative agency—reassuming control with abortion or embracing motherhood; and pre‐emptive or forward‐acting agency, through sterilization.

Blessing unintended pregnancy

“…Yet all three women regarded the unintended pregnancies they subsequently carried to term as either 'meant to be', or 'a blessing'. Whitney, one of only two women in our study who chose to have a tubal ligation, likewise expressed sadness and anxiety over the finality of her decision: Whitney wanted to wait for menopause not just because tubal ligation is 'unbiblical', but because it represented for her an arrogation of the divine prerogative to send children into the world (see de Bessa 2006;O'Dougherty 2008). Yet she did undergo the ligation procedure in the end, despite her ambivalence.…”

“…We have followed in the footsteps of researchers (see Gammeltoft 2006;Esacove 2008, O'Dougherty 2008 who have analyzed women's narratives to describe the complex interplay of agency and constraint (for a good theoretical discussion of this binary, see Archer 2000) that helps to define the contours of reproductive experience. Though our ethnography focuses, like others in the field, on conditions of extreme scarcity in poor women's lives, we are also sympathetic to the argument by some ethnographers that strong measures of contingency -implying 'randomness, uncertainty .…”

“…Our study is admittedly limited by its focus on retrospective accounts of pregnancy and motherhood that might well differ from women's accounts of sexual or reproductive choices made in real time (Dixon-Mueller 1993;Sobo 1995). Yet to the extent that even retrospective idioms and judgments help to shape a distinctive ethos of reproduction and motherhood (Somers 1994;O'Dougherty 2008;Esacove 2008;Edlin and Kefalas 2007), we believe that these stories do offer a crucial window onto women's ways-of-reproductivebeing in the world. As many studies show, women make decisions about mothering and reproduction amid a complex layering of structures, beliefs, and values, which must also take into account factors like interpersonal relationships (Frederick 2003;Cornwall 2007; van der Sijpt 2014), accessibility of medical expertise (Raine et al 2005;Apple 2006), poverty (Finer and Zolna 2011;Edlin and Kefalas 2007), and structural violence (Roberts 1998).…”

When Doctors Don't Tie: Hierarchical Medicalization, Reproduction, and Sterilization in Brazil

“…In literature exploring sterilization in Brazil, ethnographies have focused on underlying societal influences (Citeli et al. ; Serruya ) in shaping the use of this procedure, while others have focused on the individual's experience (Dalsgaard ; de Bessa ; O'Dougherty ). Framed by questions of structure and agency, debates explore whether sterilizations serve to empower women or reinscribe their status quo (O'Dougherty ).…”

“…; Serruya ) in shaping the use of this procedure, while others have focused on the individual's experience (Dalsgaard ; de Bessa ; O'Dougherty ). Framed by questions of structure and agency, debates explore whether sterilizations serve to empower women or reinscribe their status quo (O'Dougherty ). Women's engagement with sterilization as a process of medicalization of fertility control is complex and not easily characterized as a diminished expression and exercise of agency and agentic capacities of the women (Dalsgaard ; de Bessa ; O'Dougherty ).…”