ABSTRACT
Pregnancy is an important ‘rite of passage’ (Kimball 1960). One facet of this rite of passage is pregnant women giving, and, more usually, receiving advice. In particular, women who are pregnant for the first time seem to receive an enormous amount of advice as they make the transition to motherhood. This advice comes from a range of people including health workers, friends, acquaintances, loved ones, colleagues and even strangers. It also comes from a range of sources including pamphlets, manuals, books, newspapers, magazines and advertisements. The advice often focuses on topics such as diet, exercise, birth, medical procedures, lactation, how to care for a new-born baby and how to raise a child. Although this battery of advice is to an extent welcome and regarded positively, many pregnant women also experience a sense of being under surveillance, and of being regarded as vessels for a foetus whose wellbeing is the primary object of the advice-givers. The ‘giving’ of advice can be read as helpful but it can also be read as an attempt to impose limits on pregnant women’s bodies and behaviours. I focus on this latter reading.
