Type
Text
Type
Thesis
Advisor
Friedner, Michele | Diedrich, Lisa | Montegary, Liz.
Date
2016-12-01
Keywords
Women's studies -- Gender studies | Critical Discourse Analysis, Feminist Disability Studies, Interdisciplinary Methods, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Advice Literature, Reproductive Justice
Department
Department of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77201
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
In this thesis, I consider the complex interactions between discourses of medicine, nature, and disability which determine what pregnant women can or cannot, or should or should not do to maintain an acceptable and “healthy†pregnancy that results in a desired, nondisabled child. In this thesis, I employ two interdisciplinary methods, critical discourse analysis and qualitative interviewing and ground my project in feminist disability studies and the concept of reproductive justice. I analyze interviews I conducted with five currently pregnant women from Long Island, New York and three pregnancy manuals, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, and The Disabled Woman’s Guide to Pregnancy and Birth). Through my study of these texts, I found that dominant pregnancy discourses are marked by ableist expectations of and from pregnant women and not all women have the privilege (particularly able-bodied privilege) to expect something from their pregnancies. I end this thesis with a consideration of the CenteringPregnancy model of prenatal care, as a potential way towards a pregnancy discourse defined by disability-inclusive reproductive justice. | 121 pages
Recommended Citation
Abbasi-Lemmon, Laura, "Shifting Expectations: Medicine, Nature, and Disability in Pregnancy Texts" (2016). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 3032.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/3032