IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v220y2019icp264-272.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“So that's why I'm scared of these methods”: Locating contraceptive side effects in embodied life circumstances in Burundi and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

Author

Listed:
  • Schwarz, Joëlle
  • Dumbaugh, Mari
  • Bapolisi, Wyvine
  • Ndorere, Marie Souavis
  • Mwamini, Marie-Chantale
  • Bisimwa, Ghislain
  • Merten, Sonja

Abstract

Contraceptive side effects (SE) are often portrayed as either unproblematic trade-offs for pregnancy prevention or misconceptions and fears that negatively affect individuals' contraceptive decisions. Little attention is given, however, to wider, socially-rooted meanings and rationales for these feared and experienced SE. Through inductive analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with women and men from rural Burundi and South Kivu province, Democratic Republic of the Congo between 2013 and 2016, we locate contraceptive SE narratives in individuals' broader and changing life circumstances. We extracted two conceptual categories related to SE from participants' narratives: 1) bodily symptoms attributed to modern contraception; and 2) social meanings of SE in everyday life. We then situate these narratives in context – sources of knowledge on SE, barriers to addressing SE, and individuals/couples' life circumstances – to understand their embodied realities. Using Krieger's ecosocial theory, our findings suggest that in rural contexts of poverty, uncertainty and power inequities the empirical realities of SE are legitimate concerns stemming from actual or anticipated bodily symptoms located in the embodied life circumstances of individuals and couples.

Suggested Citation

  • Schwarz, Joëlle & Dumbaugh, Mari & Bapolisi, Wyvine & Ndorere, Marie Souavis & Mwamini, Marie-Chantale & Bisimwa, Ghislain & Merten, Sonja, 2019. "“So that's why I'm scared of these methods”: Locating contraceptive side effects in embodied life circumstances in Burundi and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 264-272.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:220:y:2019:i:c:p:264-272
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.09.030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618305203
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.09.030?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John B. Casterline & John Bongaarts & Clémentine Rossier & Jamaica Corker, 2017. "Contemporary Use of Traditional Contraception in sub-Saharan Africa," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 43, pages 192-215, May.
    2. Hardon, Anita, 2006. "Contesting contraceptive innovation--Reinventing the script," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 614-627, February.
    3. Kimport, Katrina, 2018. "Talking about male body-based contraceptives: The counseling visit and the feminization of contraception," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 44-50.
    4. John Bongaarts, 2016. "Development: Slow down population growth," Nature, Nature, vol. 530(7591), pages 409-412, February.
    5. Lidewyde Berckmoes & Ben White, 2014. "Youth, Farming and Precarity in Rural Burundi," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 26(2), pages 190-203, April.
    6. Magrath, Priscilla & Nichter, Mark, 2012. "Paying for performance and the social relations of health care provision: An anthropological perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1778-1785.
    7. Yajna Elouard & Carine Weiss & Adriane Martin-Hilber & Sonja Merten, 2018. "Sexual violence as a risk factor for family planning-related outcomes among young Burundian women," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(1), pages 13-22, January.
    8. Geampana, Alina, 2016. "Pregnancy is more dangerous than the pill: A critical analysis of professional responses to the Yaz/Yasmin controversy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 9-16.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sonja Merten & Langelihle Mlotshwa & Joelle Schwarz, 2020. "Youth, sexuality, gender, and health: dealing with a social phenomenon," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 65(4), pages 375-376, May.
    2. Bornstein, Marta & Gipson, Jessica D. & Failing, Gates & Banda, Venson & Norris, Alison, 2020. "Individual and community-level impact of infertility-related stigma in Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joëlle Schwarz & René Manirakiza & Sonja Merten, 2022. "Reproductive Governance in a Fragile and Population-Dense Context: Family Planning Policies, Discourses, and Practices in Burundi," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(6), pages 2666-2687, December.
    2. Bertotti, Andrea M. & Mann, Emily S. & Miner, Skye A., 2021. "Efficacy as safety: Dominant cultural assumptions and the assessment of contraceptive risk," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    3. Gore, Radhika, 2021. "Ensuring the ordinary: Politics and public service in municipal primary care in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    4. Stevens, Lindsay M., 2018. "“We have to be mythbusters”: Clinician attitudes about the legitimacy of patient concerns and dissatisfaction with contraception," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 145-152.
    5. Bonfrer, Igna & Van de Poel, Ellen & Van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2014. "The effects of performance incentives on the utilization and quality of maternal and child care in Burundi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 96-104.
    6. J. Joseph Speidel & Jane N. O’Sullivan, 2023. "Advancing the Welfare of People and the Planet with a Common Agenda for Reproductive Justice, Population, and the Environment," World, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-29, May.
    7. Yu Jingxian, 2022. "Analysis of Incentive Optimization Measures for Nurses in Public Hospitals in China," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 16(1), pages 192-210.
    8. Ben White, 2021. "Human Capital Theory and the Defectology of Aspirations in Policy Research on Rural Youth," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(1), pages 54-70, February.
    9. Frederick Amon-Armah & Nana Akua Anyidoho & Isaac Alvin Amoah & Sander Muilerman, 2023. "A Typology of Young Cocoa Farmers: Attitudes, Motivations and Aspirations," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 35(4), pages 770-793, August.
    10. Jamaica Corker & Clémentine Rossier & Lonkila Moussa Zan, 2022. "Fertility among better-off women in sub-Saharan Africa: Nearing late transition levels across the region," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(29), pages 849-864.
    11. Kissling, Alexandra, 2022. "“Thinking with my dad brain, not my man brain”: Understanding Men's and Women's sterilization risk narratives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    12. McIntosh, Craig & Zeitlin, Andrew, 2022. "Using household grants to benchmark the cost effectiveness of a USAID workforce readiness program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    13. Lange, Isabelle L. & Kanhonou, Lydie & Goufodji, Sourou & Ronsmans, Carine & Filippi, Véronique, 2016. "The costs of ‘free’: Experiences of facility-based childbirth after Benin's caesarean section exemption policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 53-62.
    14. James Sumberg & Thomas Yeboah & Justin Flynn & Nana Akua Anyidoho, 2017. "Young people’s perspectives on farming in Ghana: a Q study," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(1), pages 151-161, February.
    15. Ian G. J. Dawson, 2018. "Assessing the Effects of Information About Global Population Growth on Risk Perceptions and Support for Mitigation and Prevention Strategies," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(10), pages 2222-2241, October.
    16. Roy Huijsmans & Aprilia Ambarwati & Charina Chazali & M. Vijayabaskar, 2021. "Farming, Gender and Aspirations Across Young People’s Life Course: Attempting to Keep Things Open While Becoming a Farmer," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(1), pages 71-88, February.
    17. Elias Ganivet, 2020. "Growth in human population and consumption both need to be addressed to reach an ecologically sustainable future," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 4979-4998, August.
    18. Grace Muthoni Mwaura, 2017. "Just Farming? Neoliberal Subjectivities and Agricultural Livelihoods among Educated Youth in Kenya," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 48(6), pages 1310-1335, November.
    19. Barbara Malsegna & Andrea Di Giuliano & Katia Gallucci, 2021. "Experimental Study of Absorbent Hygiene Product Devolatilization in a Bubbling Fluidized Bed," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-21, April.
    20. Jenna Dodson & Patricia Dérer & Philip Cafaro & Frank Götmark, 2022. "Population growth, family planning and the Paris Agreement: an assessment of the nationally determined contributions (NDCs)," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 561-576, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:220:y:2019:i:c:p:264-272. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.