The creation of meaning during pregnancy

Rosado, Filipa Bouhon Valente Rosa Falcão Borges; Marques, Maria Emília

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/5361

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Authors

Rosado, Filipa Bouhon Valente Rosa Falcão Borges

Marques, Maria Emília

Abstract(s)

In this paper, we share some initial findings from PhD research on the psychic processes of pregnancy. Our aim is to make visible the invisible work of the pregnant woman’s mind. As Tyler and Baraitser (2013) note, ‘the 1960s marked the rise of foetal celebrity, and the 1990s witnessed the breaking of a taboo on the visibility of the pregnant body’ (p. 7). But as these authors also note, ‘today pregnancy is a disciplinary ‘body project’ which women are instructed to covet and enjoy’ (p. 7). This, we believe, may be another way of rendering the subjective experience of pregnancy invisible, as it is an instruction that women are supposed to comply with. An instruction that silences the extreme, conflicting and confusing emotions that, beneath the skin, on the dark side of the womb (Raphael-Leff, 2015), pregnancy also is. We then hope to illuminate that invisible and always subjective experience, by exploring some aspects of a narrative from a woman we have called ‘Petra,’ a pregnant woman interviewed as a participant in our study.