ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how pregnancy has been turned into a social problem. To be more precise, according to Carol Brooks Gardener, magazines for pregnant women construct "Pregnant Women as a Social Problem". The cultural belief in the power of "recovery" is the consequence of successful social problems claims-making. It has changed the ways many people make sense of their selves and their troubles. When social problems work is successful, claims can change the world around us, they can change the ways we evaluate ourselves and others, as well as the ways we make sense of our personal troubles. One of the lessons in examining social problems as constructions is that the claims-making process always is characterized by claims-competitions, claims-makers who direct public policy at times are the most politically connected rather than those with the claims that are most beneficial for the public good.
