Sarah Earle

“bumps and boobs”: fatness and women's experiences of pregnancy

Abstract The primacy of womens physical appearance in the modern Western world is well documented within the literature, but it is assumed that this is no longer significant during pregnancy. In this paper, I will argue that this supposition is based on scant empirical evidence and suggest that the reverse may be true. This paper is based on a qualitative research study, which draws on 40 in-depth interviews with 19 pregnant women in the West Midlands, UK. It explores their perceptions of fatness, weight, and body shape during pregnancy, and explores the extent to which their concerns reflect either a resistance to the asexualisation of the pregnant body or the continued oppression of womens embodiment. The paper concludes by arguing that pregnant women adopt a pragmatic approach of both selective resistance to asexualisation and selective compliance with the pressure to be slim.

Cyberpunters and cyberwhores: prostitution on the internet

About the book: Cyberspace opens up infinitely new possibilities to the deviant imagination. With access to the Internet and sufficient know-how you can, if you are so inclined, buy a bride, cruise gay bars, go on a global shopping spree with someone elses credit card, break into a banks security system, plan a demonstration in another country and hack into the Pentagon -- all on the same day. In more than any other medium, time and place are transcended, undermining the traditional relationship between physical context and social situation. This book crosses the boundaries of sociological, criminological and cultural discourse in order to explore the implications of these massive transformations in information and communication technologies for the growth of criminal and deviant identities and behaviour on the Internet. This is a book not about computers, nor about legal controversies over the regulation of cyberspace, but about people and the new patterns of human identity, behaviour and association that are emerging as a result of the communications revolution.

‘The silence is roaring’: sterilization, reproductive rights and women with intellectual disabilities

This paper reviews the history of sterilization of women with intellectual disabilities, and considers its relevance to current practice regarding reproductive choice and futures. The paper provides an overview of published research on historical practices, focusing on the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and the Nordic countries. Most of this research draws upon written records, centring on eugenics debates. However, emerging oral history testimonies gathered by the authors suggest that sterilization procedures were also conducted in the community, the result of private negotiations between parents and medical practitioners. The article presents these accounts and calls for an end to a ‘roaring silence’ on this issue. More empirical studies are needed to recover the experiences of women who have been sterilized and to explore how decisions about reproductive choice and capacity were made in the past and continue to be made today.

Assessment, Disability and the Problem of Compensation

The number of disabled students within higher education in the UK is thought to have increased significantly in recent years and is expected to increase further in the next few years. The practice of permitting disabled students to take an alternative form of assessment is commonly used as a means of providing them with an equality of opportunity. However, whilst these aims are commendable, this widely used practice raises a number of issues and is open to several criticisms. This paper examines the implications of allowing the use of alternative forms of assessment in the light of the principles by which we assess. It suggests that the use of alternative assessments is compensatory in nature and, as a result, ultimately threatens to subvert the equality of opportunity it aims to provide. The authors conclude that this widely used practice violates the principles of assessment and undermines the validity of assessment in higher education.

“Planned” and “unplanned” pregnancy: Deconstructing experiences of conception

This paper seeks to explore womens experiences of conception, and to deconstruct the dichotomy between the terms “planned” and “unplanned” pregnancy. It draws on interviews with 19 primagravidae conducted as part of a wider qualitative study of womens experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. Although the concept of pregnancy intention is widely regarded as ambiguous, and by some immeasurable, this paper draws on interview data to develop four categories of pregnancy intention. The first category (the planned pregnancy) is unambiguous and reflects the type of planned approach currently advocated by health professionals. The second category (the laissez-faire pregnancy) reflects the experiences of women who stop using contraception but adopt a more relaxed approach to pregnancy planning. The third category (the recalcitrant pregnancy) is far more ambiguous and describes the experiences of those who want to be pregnant but for whom it would not be socially acceptable to plan a pregnancy. The final category (the accidental pregnancy) is unambiguous and deals with pregnancies that could be described as unexpected, and arising due to genuine contraceptive failure. This paper concludes by highlighting the significance of pregnancy intention for health policy, health research, and for the health care providers. The importance of adopting a subjective approach to improve our understanding of womens experiences of conception is also highlighted.

Becoming a Mother: Occupational Change in First Time Motherhood

Abstract Having a first baby is considered a major life event, due to significant role change impacting on the ordinary and familiar occupations the new mother performs every day. The aim of this small‐scale exploratory study was to explore changes in the occupational lives of first time mothers. A concurrent nested strategy of enquiry was used. Quantitative data collected via the Modified Interest Checklist and the Role Checklist were nested within qualitative data collected through semi‐structured interviews. Six first time mothers, who were two and a half years post motherhood and aged between 28 and 42 years, participated in this study. The findings indicate that ‘new mothers’ engaging in a pre‐motherhood lifestyle that comprised a balance of self‐care, leisure, productivity and rest occupations experience a period of occupational disruption before adapting into motherhood. These mothers’ lives are productivity dominant, with most of their time being spent in paid employment and/or performing homecare/family care tasks. Their lives are also obligatory dominant, for example, they are performing occupations they need to do to enable them to fulfil their role as mother, as opposed to those they choose to do.

Whose choice is it anyway? Decision making, control and conception

Contemporary societies in the developed world are characterized by the expectation that women wish to and are able to control their experiences of fertility. Changes in medical technology and advances in reproductive medicine have played an important role in strengthening this expectation, together with other changes, such as the availability of free contraception. However, this article draws on data from two qualitiative sociological research projects which demonstrate that womens expectations of reproductive choice and control are not always realized. Womens experiences of fertility are mediated by a dominant discourse which assumes that women both want and will achieve biological motherhood. The data indicate that women actively ‘try’ to achieve conception with the expectation that this is both controllable and easy. In some instances this seems to be the case, but many women soon realize that achieving conception is sometimes problematic or, indeed, impossible. This article concludes by arguing that although women may wish to control their experiences of fertility, their expectations of choice and control are frequently an illusion.

Conceptualizing reproductive loss: a social sciences perspective.

This paper defines and explores reproductive loss and, drawing on a social sciences perspective, reflects on the lack of attention that has been given to the subject within the study of human fertility. The authors argue that whilst reproductive loss (broadly defined) is exceptionally common, scholars have – with some exceptions – focused on the study of reproductive ‘success’, and continue to do so. The paper examines the implications of this for policy, practice and the role of healthcare professionals and focuses on the significance of appreciating difference and diversity in the study of reproductive loss and the importance of placing such experiences within the social structure.

The sociology of long term conditions and nursing practice

An insightful examination of the sociology surrounding major long term conditions, this is the final volume in the successful Sociology in Nursing Practice series. Demonstrating a high level of scholarship, it makes excellent use of current research to illuminate the social context of long term conditions and the patients experience.

Contraceptive decision-making and women with learning disabilities

This article explores contraceptive decision-making for women with learning disabilities. It sets the historical context of reproductive control by highlighting former practices which overtly aimed to prevent women with learning disabilities from conceiving. This is contrasted with a current legislative framework that strongly endorses the human and reproductive rights of women with learning disabilities. The article presents findings from a small-scale, UK-based survey that invited third parties involved in supporting women with learning disabilities with contraceptive decision-making to share their views and experiences. The survey indicated apparent continuities in practice, showing that key decisions over contraceptive care are often made by other people and not by women themselves. The increasing evidence of a gap between policy and practice is explored; this suggests a need for further research, including studies to explore the experiences of women with high support needs where there may be particular issues in relation to the management of menstruation, decision-making and capacity to consent.