ABSTRACT
The health of societies is predicated on the health and wellbeing of the children and families who live in that society. Family creation (pregnancy and childbirth in most cases) is both a culturally defined time and a medically mediated one. Decisions about when and how to have children, what is ‘appropriate’ medical care, and what control the pregnant woman has in her medical care, are all culturally bound and socially mediated. In countries with high technology use, many of these decisions are made in conjunction with technological interventions. This creates an intersection of health, gender, socio-political context, risk interpretation and stigma that is complex, and yet rich for identifying the challenges and rewards of undertaking research with women regarding reproductive health care. This chapter has three primary objectives:
Discuss the challenges of sampling, recruitment, data interpretation and dissemination in a study of women who have experienced termination of a desired pregnancy due to the finding of a fetal anomaly;
Provide an overview of the socio-political, family and medical context women experience as they traverse the medical trajectory from identification of risk for fetal anomalies through the aftermath of a pregnancy termination for anomaly;
Consider the implications for a grieving process when it occurs within a medicalised context and is viewed both as a decision of one’s own volition and a stigmatised ‘choice’.
