IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v71y2010i10p1757-1763.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Loss in childbearing among Gambia's kanyalengs: Using a stratified reproduction framework to expand the scope of sexual and reproductive health

Author

Listed:
  • Hough, Carolyn A.

Abstract

This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork with Gambian women who have experienced infertility and/or child mortality and who have consequently become kanyalengs. Kanyaleng kafoos are groups of women united by their reproductive difficulties whose bold public performances are designed to "beg God" for fertility and for children who will survive. I situate 'kanyalengs' disrupted childbearing within a framework of stratified reproduction, which reveals the tensions between ongoing demands to meet norms of high fertility, women's heavy burden of reproductive disease and the limits of a reproductive public health agenda narrowly focused on family planning and HIV prevention. To ameliorate these tensions, I call for an expansion of the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) agenda in Gambia to include RTI/STI prevention, diagnosis and management. This expansion reflects the goals set out by the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development for a broader approach to reproductive health, the productive potential of linkages between SRH and HIV prevention efforts, as well as the reproductive objectives of Gambian women and men.

Suggested Citation

  • Hough, Carolyn A., 2010. "Loss in childbearing among Gambia's kanyalengs: Using a stratified reproduction framework to expand the scope of sexual and reproductive health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(10), pages 1757-1763, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:71:y:2010:i:10:p:1757-1763
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(10)00362-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Meredeth Turshen, 2007. "What has Happened in Africa since Cairo?," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 14(3), pages 387-408, December.
    2. DeJong, Jocelyn, 2000. "The role and limitations of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 941-953, September.
    3. Dudgeon, Matthew R. & Inhorn, Marcia C., 2004. "Men's influences on women's reproductive health: medical anthropological perspectives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(7), pages 1379-1395, October.
    4. Inhorn, Marcia C., 2003. "Global infertility and the globalization of new reproductive technologies: illustrations from Egypt," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(9), pages 1837-1851, May.
    5. Ericksen, Karen & Brunette, Tracy, 1996. "Patterns and predictors of infertility among African women: A cross-national survey of twenty-seven nations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 209-220, January.
    6. Jenkins, Gwynne L. & Inhorn, Marcia C., 2003. "Reproduction gone awry: medical anthropological perspectives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(9), pages 1831-1836, May.
    7. Sundby, Johanne & Mboge, Reuben & Sonko, Sheriff, 1998. "Infertility in the Gambia: frequency and health care seeking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 891-899, April.
    8. Hollos, Marida & Larsen, Ulla & Obono, Oka & Whitehouse, Bruce, 2009. "The problem of infertility in high fertility populations: Meanings, consequences and coping mechanisms in two Nigerian communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2061-2068, June.
    9. Pickering, H. & Todd, J. & Dunn, D. & Pepin, J. & Wilkins, A., 1992. "Prostitutes and their clients: A Gambian survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 75-88, January.
    10. Inhorn, Marcia C., 1994. "Interpreting infertility: Medical anthropological perspectives : Introduction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 459-461, August.
    11. Lane, Sandra D., 1994. "From population control to reproductive health: An emerging policy agenda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1303-1314, November.
    12. Orubuloye, I. O. & Caldwell, John C. & Caldwell, Pat, 1997. "Perceived male sexual needs and male sexual behaviour in southwest Nigeria," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(8), pages 1195-1207, April.
    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. McConnell, Bonnie B., 2016. "Music and health communication in The Gambia: A social capital approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 132-140.

    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. Hampshire, Katherine R. & Blell, Mwenza T. & Simpson, Bob, 2012. "‘Everybody is moving on’: Infertility, relationality and the aesthetics of family among British-Pakistani Muslims," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(7), pages 1045-1052.
    2. Susan Dierickx & Julie Balen & Chia Longman & Ladan Rahbari & Ed Clarke & Bintou Jarju & Gily Coene, 2019. "‘We are always desperate and will try anything to conceive’: The convoluted and dynamic process of health seeking among women with infertility in the West Coast Region of The Gambia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, January.
    3. Panter-Brick, Catherine & Eggerman, Mark, 2018. "The field of medical anthropology in Social Science & Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 233-239.
    4. Laura K. Merrell & Sarah R. Blackstone, 2020. "Women’s Empowerment as a Mitigating Factor for Improved Antenatal Care Quality despite Impact of 2014 Ebola Outbreak in Guinea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-18, November.
    5. Mullany, Britta C., 2006. "Barriers to and attitudes towards promoting husbands' involvement in maternal health in Katmandu, Nepal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(11), pages 2798-2809, June.
    6. Wilson Nicholas, 2019. "The World’s Oldest Profession? Employment-Age Profiles from the Transactional Sex Market," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, June.
    7. Moghimehfar, Farhad & Nasr-Esfahani, Mohammad Hossein, 2011. "Decisive factors in medical tourism destination choice: A case study of Isfahan, Iran and fertility treatments," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1431-1434.
    8. Samb, Oumar Mallé & Ridde, Valery, 2018. "The impact of free healthcare on women's capability: A qualitative study in rural Burkina Faso," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 9-16.
    9. Brunson, Jan, 2020. "Tool of economic development, metric of global health: Promoting planned families and economized life in Nepal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    10. Sunil, T.S. & Rajaram, S. & Zottarelli, Lisa K., 2006. "Do individual and program factors matter in the utilization of maternal care services in rural India? A theoretical approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(8), pages 1943-1957, April.
    11. Lisa Ann Richey, 2008. "Global knowledge/local bodies: Family planning service providers’ interpretations of contraceptive knowledge(s)," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 18(17), pages 469-498.
    12. Bove, Riley M. & Vala-Haynes, Emily & Valeggia, Claudia R., 2012. "Women's health in urban Mali: Social predictors and health itineraries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1392-1399.
    13. Rachel Goldberg, 2013. "Family Instability and Early Initiation of Sexual Activity in Western Kenya," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 725-750, April.
    14. Thapa, Deependra Kaji & Niehof, Anke, 2013. "Women's autonomy and husbands' involvement in maternal health care in Nepal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 1-10.
    15. Powis, Richard & Bunkley, Emma N., 2023. "Handbooks and health interpreters: How men are assets for their pregnant partners in Senegal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    16. Suh, Siri, 2015. "“Right tool,” wrong “job”: Manual vacuum aspiration, post-abortion care and transnational population politics in Senegal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 56-66.
    17. Jaffré, Yannick & Suh, Siri, 2016. "Where the lay and the technical meet: Using an anthropology of interfaces to explain persistent reproductive health disparities in West Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 175-183.
    18. Vanderlinden, Lisa K., 2009. "German genes and Turkish traits: Ethnicity, infertility, and reproductive politics in Germany," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 266-273, July.
    19. Mullany, Britta C. & Hindin, Michelle J. & Becker, Stan, 2005. "Can women's autonomy impede male involvement in pregnancy health in Katmandu, Nepal?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 1993-2006, November.
    20. Kyi Mar Wai & Akira Shibanuma & Nwe Nwe Oo & Toki Jennifer Fillman & Yu Mon Saw & Masamine Jimba, 2015. "Are Husbands Involving in Their Spouses’ Utilization of Maternal Care Services?: A Cross-Sectional Study in Yangon, Myanmar," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-13, December.

    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:71:y:2010:i:10:p:1757-1763. 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.