Reconceiving the Spoiled Female Identity: Childbearing and Motherhood among Women with Hepatitis C

Abstract

This thesis explores the impact of hepatitis C on women’s childbearing decisions and experiences of motherhood. A partial grounded theory approach was used, in which 34 women living with hepatitis C participated in semi-structured interviews to determine the direct and indirect effects of hepatitis C on their own personal decisions regarding childbearing and to describe their lived experiences of motherhood. The qualitative interview data were analysed thematically, in which common themes were identified and explored. Three key areas are explored: women’s social experience of hepatitis C; hepatitis C and childbearing decisions; and the meaning of motherhood for women with hepatitis C. The interviews revealed that living with hepatitis C had direct effects on the childbearing decisions of women. The direct effects of the virus which impacted on women’s childbearing decisions included poor physical and emotional hepatitis C related health, the perceived risk of vertical transmission of hepatitis C, concerns their future hepatitis C related health might impact upon their mothering abilities, and childbearing can conflict with treatment for hepatitis C. However, of greater importance to these women, appeared to be the indirect effects of living with a virus which is so highly stigmatised within our society. In particular, hepatitis C is closely associated with injecting drug use, which means these women are often assumed to possess the stereotypical characteristics associated with injecting drug users. As a result, they experience widespread medical discrimination and social rejection. Hepatitis C also impacts indirectly upon a wide range of factors that most women in contemporary society take into consideration in their childbearing decisions, for example, available social support, financial security and age. The experiences reported by these women are discussed in terms of their concordance or discord with prevailing theories of deviance, stigma and the social construction of motherhood. The interview data, considered in light of such theories reveal that possibly the greatest impact that hepatitis C can have upon women is to prevent them from achieving a legitimate adult female status through childbearing and becoming a ‘good mother’. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of public health and social policy.