Abstract:
This thesis is about the pregnancy and childbirth
experiences of two different groups of Asian women in
Britain. It sets out to address the issues surrounding
pregnancy and childbirth from the women's point of view.
This is an attempt to redress the balance in the previous
research on Asian women which has often portrayed them as a
homogeneous group with "problems`. An overview of the
literature focuses on how Asian communities and, in
particular, Asian women are portrayed. In order to provide
a context for the issues which emerge in this research,
attention is paid, first, to how Asian communities and, in
particular Asian women, are viewed by mainstream society
and, second, to cultural attitudes towards the sexual
politics of reproduction. The main theme of the research
is the degree of control the women were able to
exercise given the constraints of western medicalised
childbirth practices in Britain, traditional childbirth
practices and the role played by the women`s relatives
during pregnancy and childbirth.
The study draws on in-depth interviews (during and after
pregnancy) with two samples of Asian women- the first
Gujarati, the second Bangladeshi. In addition, two Gujarati
case studies and two Bangladeshi case studies provide
further insights into the lives of these two groups of
women. The women's perceptions of their experiences of
pregnancy and childbirth are emphasised by the use of the
actual quotes which give some indication of the way these
women conceptualised the issues which confronted them.
The final chapter of the thesis concludes with a discusses
of the position of Asian women within the current childbirth
debate and makes suggestions for improving the delivery of
maternity services to the Gujarati and Bangladeshi women in
particular and to Asian women in general.
