IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v93y2013icp55-63.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tensions around risks in pregnancy: A typology of women's experiences of surveillance medicine

Author

Listed:
  • Hammer, Raphaël P.
  • Burton-Jeangros, Claudine

Abstract

The experience of pregnancy is currently driven by the development of surveillance medicine focused on the monitoring of a wide range of risks. Research usually relies on binary categories opposing women accepting medical surveillance to those resisting it. Recent studies have however underlined the complexity of women's experiences, as well as the ambivalence of their attitudes toward medical procedures and recommendations. Based on 47 qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted in Switzerland between 2008 and 2009, this paper presents the diversity of pregnant women's experiences of surveillance medicine through the description of four contrasting groups: “endorsing surveillance medicine”, “coping with risks”, “striving for certainty” and “questioning surveillance medicine”. Taking into account various risks related to pregnancy, these empirically-grounded groups are discussed in relation to the cultural dynamics of contemporary risk discourses.

Suggested Citation

  • Hammer, Raphaël P. & Burton-Jeangros, Claudine, 2013. "Tensions around risks in pregnancy: A typology of women's experiences of surveillance medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 55-63.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:93:y:2013:i:c:p:55-63
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.05.033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953613003274
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.05.033?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bessett, Danielle, 2010. "Negotiating normalization: The perils of producing pregnancy symptoms in prenatal care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 370-377, July.
    2. Ted To, 1999. "Risk and evolution," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 13(2), pages 329-343.
    3. Williams, Clare & Sandall, Jane & Lewando-Hundt, Gillian & Heyman, Bob & Spencer, Kevin & Grellier, Rachel, 2005. "Women as moral pioneers? Experiences of first trimester antenatal screening," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 1983-1992, November.
    4. Markens, Susan & Browner, C. H. & Press, Nancy, 1999. "'Because of the risks': how US pregnant women account for refusing prenatal screening," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 359-369, August.
    5. Ted To, 1999. "Risk and evolution," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 13(2), pages 329-343.
    6. Getz, Linn & Kirkengen, Anne Luise, 2003. "Ultrasound screening in pregnancy: advancing technology, soft markers for fetal chromosomal aberrations, and unacknowledged ethical dilemmas," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(10), pages 2045-2057, May.
    7. Reid, Bernie & Sinclair, Marlene & Barr, Owen & Dobbs, Frank & Crealey, Grainne, 2009. "A meta-synthesis of pregnant women's decision-making processes with regard to antenatal screening for Down syndrome," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 1561-1573, December.
    8. García, Elisa & Timmermans, Danielle R.M. & van Leeuwen, Evert, 2008. "The impact of ethical beliefs on decisions about prenatal screening tests: Searching for justification," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 753-764, February.
    9. Press, Nancy & Browner, C. H., 1997. "Why women say yes to prenatal diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 979-989, October.
    10. Barker, K. K., 1998. "A ship upon a stormy sea: The medicalization of pregnancy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(8), pages 1067-1076, October.
    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. Hernandez, Elaine M. & Calarco, Jessica McCrory, 2021. "Health decisions amidst controversy: Prenatal alcohol consumption and the unequal experience of influence and control in networks," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    2. Lichtsztejn, Mariana Campos & Closas, Anna Molas & Pujol-Tarrés, Joan, 2025. "Risk and decision-making: Communication between health professionals and pregnant women at risk of preeclampsia in Catalonia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 367(C).
    3. Timmermans, Stefan & Tietbohl, Caroline, 2018. "Fifty years of sociological leadership at Social Science and Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 209-215.

    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. Shaw, Alison, 2011. "Risk and reproductive decisions: British Pakistani couples' responses to genetic counselling," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 111-120, July.
    2. Reid, Bernie & Sinclair, Marlene & Barr, Owen & Dobbs, Frank & Crealey, Grainne, 2009. "A meta-synthesis of pregnant women's decision-making processes with regard to antenatal screening for Down syndrome," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 1561-1573, December.
    3. Williams, Clare & Ehrich, Kathryn & Farsides, Bobbie & Scott, Rosamund, 2007. "Facilitating choice, framing choice: Staff views on widening the scope of preimplantation genetic diagnosis in the UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(6), pages 1094-1105, September.
    4. Waring, Justin J., 2009. "Constructing and re-constructing narratives of patient safety," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 1722-1731, December.
    5. Smith, Richard D., 2006. "Responding to global infectious disease outbreaks: Lessons from SARS on the role of risk perception, communication and management," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(12), pages 3113-3123, December.
    6. Burkhard C. Schipper, 2021. "The evolutionary stability of optimism, pessimism, and complete ignorance," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 417-454, May.
    7. García, Elisa & Timmermans, Danielle R.M. & van Leeuwen, Evert, 2008. "The impact of ethical beliefs on decisions about prenatal screening tests: Searching for justification," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 753-764, February.
    8. Campbell, Patricia, 2011. "Boundaries and risk: Media framing of assisted reproductive technologies and older mothers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 265-272, January.
    9. Miller, Tina & Boulton, Mary, 2007. "Changing constructions of informed consent: Qualitative research and complex social worlds," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(11), pages 2199-2211, December.
    10. Washer, Peter & Joffe, Helene, 2006. "The "hospital superbug": Social representations of MRSA," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(8), pages 2141-2152, October.
    11. Vassy, Carine & Rosman, Sophia & Rousseau, Bénédicte, 2014. "From policy making to service use. Down's syndrome antenatal screening in England, France and the Netherlands," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 67-74.
    12. Abel, Gillian M., 2011. "Different stage, different performance: The protective strategy of role play on emotional health in sex work," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(7), pages 1177-1184, April.
    13. Steffen Huck & Georg Kirchsteiger & Jörg Oechssler, 2005. "Learning to like what you have - explaining the endowment effect," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(505), pages 689-702, July.
    14. Andersson, Ola & Holm, Håkan J. & Wengström, Erik, 2016. "Grind or Gamble? An Experimental Analysis of Effort and Spread Seeking in Contests," Working Papers 2016:37, Lund University, Department of Economics, revised 28 Jan 2019.
    15. Bank for International Settlements, 2013. "Sovereign risk: a world without risk-free assets?," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 72, June.
    16. Griffiths, F. & Green, E. & Bendelow, G., 2006. "Health professionals, their medical interventions and uncertainty: A study focusing on women at midlife," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(5), pages 1078-1090, March.
    17. Warneryd, Karl, 2002. "Rent, risk, and replication: Preference adaptation in winner-take-all markets," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 344-364, November.
    18. Raspberry, Kelly Amanda & Skinner, Debra, 2011. "Negotiating desires and options: How mothers who carry the fragile X gene experience reproductive decisions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(6), pages 992-998, March.
    19. Curtis Breslin, F. & Polzer, Jessica & MacEachen, Ellen & Morrongiello, Barbara & Shannon, Harry, 2007. "Workplace injury or "part of the job"?: Towards a gendered understanding of injuries and complaints among young workers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 782-793, February.
    20. Pound, Pandora & Campbell, Rona, 2015. "Exploring the feasibility of theory synthesis: A worked example in the field of health related risk-taking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 57-65.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:93:y:2013:i:c:p:55-63. 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.