“The Persecution Was From All Angles”: Negotiating Medicalization and Ghanaian Cultural Practices during Motherhood

• In Event: 1709 - Gender, Sexuality, and Family Dynamics

Abstract

Western biomedical norms surrounding pregnancy, birth and early mothering often tend to be in contradiction with traditional Ghanaian methods. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, this paper examines how Ghanaian mothers experience Western/global biomedical discourses and local Ghanaian cultural norms associated with pregnancy, birth and infant care and how they navigate conflicting social-cultural demands. The study revealed that the discourses surrounding motherhood in different fields have an impact on women’s experiences. In addition, the contradictory demands of the fields of local culture and Western biomedicine meant that women had to actively negotiate contradictory social expectations which created opportunities for agency. Such agency was influenced by level of education, previous motherhood experiences and the particular phase in the process of the transition to motherhood that mothers found themselves. This study extends the existing scholarship on the medicalization of pregnancy, birth and maternity by focusing on a context underexplored in the literature.

Author

• Elizabeth Yemorkor Odoi, Hong Kong Baptist University