Narrated experiences of the pre-termination of pregnancy counselling healthcare encounter in the Eastern Cape public health sector
- Mavuso, Jabulile Mary-Jane Jace
- Authors: Mavuso, Jabulile Mary-Jane Jace
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Abortion counseling -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Abortion -- Psychological aspects , Abortion -- Social aspects , Pro-choice movement -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Reproductive rights -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Women -- Sexual behavior -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62928 , vital:28311
- Description: Research that has been conducted about experiences of pre-abortion counselling tends to investigate either womxn's1 or healthcare providers' experiences separately, with research on womxn's experiences of abortion and abortion counselling dominating this area of research. Although some of the studies on womxn's abortion experiences have explored womxn's experiences of interactions between themselves and healthcare providers, these aspects have been underreported. To my knowledge, research that also explores womxn's interactions among themselves in the waiting room has not been done. Furthermore, research that explores the pre-termination of pregnancy healthcare encounter, where womxn's and healthcare providers' experiences of waiting room interactions and of pre-abortion counselling practices are seen as interrelated, has not been conducted. Research that has been conducted among womxn's experiences show that womxn have varying experiences of pre-abortion counselling, with some finding it useful while other womxn have found it to be lacking in relevance to their specific situation or needs. Research conducted among healthcare providers also points to varying experiences, with some healthcare providers stratifying womxn's reasons for abortion according to the acceptability of the request. This study explores health service providers’ and womxn’s narrated experiences of the pre-termination of pregnancy healthcare encounter (waiting room interactions and pre-abortion counselling) in the Eastern Cape public health sector. An African feminist post-structural approach, which enables analysis of how discursive structures and power relations may underpin African womxn's experiences of oppression and resistance, was used. Fusing this approach with a narrative-discursive analysis, enabled an exploration of the discursive resources drawn upon and the power relations referred to by participants when constructing micro-narratives and accounts of their experiences of waiting room interactions and pre-abortion counselling practices. This fusion enabled an understanding of the micro (individual) and macro (social) and how they interact and come to bear on experiences of the pre-abortion counselling healthcare encounter. Womxn's micro-narratives and healthcare providers' accounts were compared for convergences and divergences in the pre-abortion counselling practices they described. The implications of these convergences and divergences and of the power relations referred to by participants for pre-abortion counselling service provision are discussed. The research referred to in this study were conducted in contexts where abortion is legal, although the conditions under which it may be accessed differ across and within contexts. This present study is contextualised by the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act No. 92 of 1996 which legalises abortion and stipulates that abortion counselling should be made available to womxn but should be non-mandatory and non-directive. Data were collected at three abortion facilities located in public hospitals in the Eastern Cape. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 womxn after they received pre-abortion counselling, and four healthcare providers involved in abortion service provision. Data were analysed using an extended narrative-discursive approach which entailed exploring patterns in and across participants' talk. These patterns took the form of discursive resources (discourses and the subject positions they made available, and canonical narratives), power relations, and micro-narratives and accounts of their experiences of pre-abortion counselling practices and waiting room interactions. Participants described the following pre-abortion counselling practices: information-giving practices, consent practices, administering of LARCs, a waiting period and third-party involvement. In describing these processes, participants drew on an awfulisation of abortion discourse, moralising discourses, pronatalist discourses, and liberal discourses to construct (micro-)narratives in which liberal, pastoral and authoritarian counselling practices and power relations were constructed and referred to. In their micro-narratives, most womxn described the counselling as informative, beneficial and healing whilst also describing shock, hurt, pain and distress at the various kinds of information they received. Healthcare providers drew on discourses and canonical narratives (such as the hero and personal testimony) to justify liberal, pastoral and authoritarian counselling practices which were underpinned by constructing abortion and unintended pregnancy as problematic. The pre-abortion counselling practices that were described were directive in two ways: the coercion of contraceptive uptake post-abortion, and information provision practices which effectively work to delegitimise and persuade womxn against abortion.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Mavuso, Jabulile Mary-Jane Jace
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Abortion counseling -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Abortion -- Psychological aspects , Abortion -- Social aspects , Pro-choice movement -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Reproductive rights -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Women -- Sexual behavior -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62928 , vital:28311
- Description: Research that has been conducted about experiences of pre-abortion counselling tends to investigate either womxn's1 or healthcare providers' experiences separately, with research on womxn's experiences of abortion and abortion counselling dominating this area of research. Although some of the studies on womxn's abortion experiences have explored womxn's experiences of interactions between themselves and healthcare providers, these aspects have been underreported. To my knowledge, research that also explores womxn's interactions among themselves in the waiting room has not been done. Furthermore, research that explores the pre-termination of pregnancy healthcare encounter, where womxn's and healthcare providers' experiences of waiting room interactions and of pre-abortion counselling practices are seen as interrelated, has not been conducted. Research that has been conducted among womxn's experiences show that womxn have varying experiences of pre-abortion counselling, with some finding it useful while other womxn have found it to be lacking in relevance to their specific situation or needs. Research conducted among healthcare providers also points to varying experiences, with some healthcare providers stratifying womxn's reasons for abortion according to the acceptability of the request. This study explores health service providers’ and womxn’s narrated experiences of the pre-termination of pregnancy healthcare encounter (waiting room interactions and pre-abortion counselling) in the Eastern Cape public health sector. An African feminist post-structural approach, which enables analysis of how discursive structures and power relations may underpin African womxn's experiences of oppression and resistance, was used. Fusing this approach with a narrative-discursive analysis, enabled an exploration of the discursive resources drawn upon and the power relations referred to by participants when constructing micro-narratives and accounts of their experiences of waiting room interactions and pre-abortion counselling practices. This fusion enabled an understanding of the micro (individual) and macro (social) and how they interact and come to bear on experiences of the pre-abortion counselling healthcare encounter. Womxn's micro-narratives and healthcare providers' accounts were compared for convergences and divergences in the pre-abortion counselling practices they described. The implications of these convergences and divergences and of the power relations referred to by participants for pre-abortion counselling service provision are discussed. The research referred to in this study were conducted in contexts where abortion is legal, although the conditions under which it may be accessed differ across and within contexts. This present study is contextualised by the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act No. 92 of 1996 which legalises abortion and stipulates that abortion counselling should be made available to womxn but should be non-mandatory and non-directive. Data were collected at three abortion facilities located in public hospitals in the Eastern Cape. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 womxn after they received pre-abortion counselling, and four healthcare providers involved in abortion service provision. Data were analysed using an extended narrative-discursive approach which entailed exploring patterns in and across participants' talk. These patterns took the form of discursive resources (discourses and the subject positions they made available, and canonical narratives), power relations, and micro-narratives and accounts of their experiences of pre-abortion counselling practices and waiting room interactions. Participants described the following pre-abortion counselling practices: information-giving practices, consent practices, administering of LARCs, a waiting period and third-party involvement. In describing these processes, participants drew on an awfulisation of abortion discourse, moralising discourses, pronatalist discourses, and liberal discourses to construct (micro-)narratives in which liberal, pastoral and authoritarian counselling practices and power relations were constructed and referred to. In their micro-narratives, most womxn described the counselling as informative, beneficial and healing whilst also describing shock, hurt, pain and distress at the various kinds of information they received. Healthcare providers drew on discourses and canonical narratives (such as the hero and personal testimony) to justify liberal, pastoral and authoritarian counselling practices which were underpinned by constructing abortion and unintended pregnancy as problematic. The pre-abortion counselling practices that were described were directive in two ways: the coercion of contraceptive uptake post-abortion, and information provision practices which effectively work to delegitimise and persuade womxn against abortion.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Conservatism and change: the refashioning of gender relations from 1870 to 1914: a case study of East London
- Authors: Vernon, Gillian Noël
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Women -- South Africa -- East London , Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Women's rights -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2567 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002420 , Women -- South Africa -- East London , Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Women's rights -- South Africa
- Description: This is a case study of East London from 1870 to 1914 with gender as the critical analytical category. The focus is on change in the structure of gender relations, evaluated in terms of the recognition of the rights of women and their status in society and women of all race groups are dealt with. A feature of the source material has been the use made of oral history where interviews were conducted with the descendants of women who lived during the study period. There were many indirect factors which had a retrogressive influence on progressive change in the rights and position of women. The initial small size of the population and unbalanced gender ratios, the few natural resources, a small and limited port and periodic unpredictable natural disasters gave rise to a 'boom and burst' economy with very little industry. The result was that initially the women were very conservative and unwilling to make social changes. The military occupation and the outbreak of hostilities in the late 1870s affected social and racial attitudes detrimentally. The entrenched patriarchal system, under which both black and white women lived, and the legal controls, particularly in the marital situation, reinforced the subordination of women, making the system difficult to break. Further conservative forces were at work with the European class system being well entrenched, with most women working for upward mobility, gentrification and respectability. Wealth was critical in determining status and those women from the working class, who had achieved some degree of wealth and status, were not prepared to challenge the system. Religion was important for nearly all white women and converted black women, but was a retarding influence in the growth of feminist consciousness. Little progress was made in improving the condition of women who transgressed the law, the non-respectable women, and ethnicity made no difference. Progress was made in gender relations for women in some fields. The reduction in family size and the improvement in health, gave women more time and energy for public affairs. Participation in sport helped women discard the image of being weak and frail and also improved health. Educational opportunities allowed some to get tertiary training and obtain proper qualifications to earn a living for themselves. Xhosa women who came into the town, made a major break with traditional society and many became independent. The major impetus for change came through women's associations, where women actively worked together and achieved some positive results. Middle class white women could earn an independent living without losing respectability, although it was accepted that women should give up paid employment on marriage. Black women broke traditional ties and many urban women became independent. Conditions for working class and non-respectable women changed very little. A deduction is that many women, both white and black, had sympathy for one another and they created a fund of goodwill on both sides of the colour line.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Vernon, Gillian Noël
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Women -- South Africa -- East London , Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Women's rights -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2567 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002420 , Women -- South Africa -- East London , Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Women's rights -- South Africa
- Description: This is a case study of East London from 1870 to 1914 with gender as the critical analytical category. The focus is on change in the structure of gender relations, evaluated in terms of the recognition of the rights of women and their status in society and women of all race groups are dealt with. A feature of the source material has been the use made of oral history where interviews were conducted with the descendants of women who lived during the study period. There were many indirect factors which had a retrogressive influence on progressive change in the rights and position of women. The initial small size of the population and unbalanced gender ratios, the few natural resources, a small and limited port and periodic unpredictable natural disasters gave rise to a 'boom and burst' economy with very little industry. The result was that initially the women were very conservative and unwilling to make social changes. The military occupation and the outbreak of hostilities in the late 1870s affected social and racial attitudes detrimentally. The entrenched patriarchal system, under which both black and white women lived, and the legal controls, particularly in the marital situation, reinforced the subordination of women, making the system difficult to break. Further conservative forces were at work with the European class system being well entrenched, with most women working for upward mobility, gentrification and respectability. Wealth was critical in determining status and those women from the working class, who had achieved some degree of wealth and status, were not prepared to challenge the system. Religion was important for nearly all white women and converted black women, but was a retarding influence in the growth of feminist consciousness. Little progress was made in improving the condition of women who transgressed the law, the non-respectable women, and ethnicity made no difference. Progress was made in gender relations for women in some fields. The reduction in family size and the improvement in health, gave women more time and energy for public affairs. Participation in sport helped women discard the image of being weak and frail and also improved health. Educational opportunities allowed some to get tertiary training and obtain proper qualifications to earn a living for themselves. Xhosa women who came into the town, made a major break with traditional society and many became independent. The major impetus for change came through women's associations, where women actively worked together and achieved some positive results. Middle class white women could earn an independent living without losing respectability, although it was accepted that women should give up paid employment on marriage. Black women broke traditional ties and many urban women became independent. Conditions for working class and non-respectable women changed very little. A deduction is that many women, both white and black, had sympathy for one another and they created a fund of goodwill on both sides of the colour line.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
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