Navigating HIV, pregnancy, and childbearing in South India: pragmatics and constraints in women's decision making.
Based on ethnographic research conducted in 2004 and 2002-3, this article examines how poor women living with HIV in Tamilnadu, India navigate decisions about pregnancy and birth, and demonstrates that these decisions are influenced by a complex web of sociocultural factors. I argue that these decisions are informed by: 1) institutional interests of the state, NGOs, and international aid donors; 2). cultural constructions of gender and of the self; 3). Christian-based organizations; and 4). support group organizations, known as "networks" for people living with HIV/AIDS. Childbearing decisions emerged through a synthesis of coexisting structures and discourses which sometimes converged at the same conclusion despite differences in their underlying logics. I argue that the discourse of "positive living" fostered by the networks provided women with a framework for making reproductive decisions that was enabling. The article highlights how women pragmatically negotiated these various factors as they engaged in reproductive decision-making.
Van Hollen
Cecilia
C
Department of Anthropology, Syracuse University. cvanholl@maxwell.syr.edu
D000328:Adult; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012098:Reproduction