This project examines the ways that prospective parents construct an understanding of normality during a pregnancy and the relationship between this process and broader understandings of cultural reproduction. The interdisciplinary literature on reproduction thoroughly documents a conception of in vivo normality, and obstetricians employ the classification of "normal" pregnancy in the medical management of prenatal care. However, we know little about the ways prospective parents come to define an idea of normality, what they grasp as its dimensions, or how they use it. This study will conduct in-depth interviews with 50 pregnant women at several points during their pregnancy, interview a strategically selected set of medical professionals who work with pregnant women, and analyze the content of medical and self-help pregnancy literature. This research will provide a detailed account of the process by which pregnancies are defined and experienced by a diverse group of women in light of the influence of the powerful normalizing discourse of obstetric medicine and will explore the importance of people's economic status and stage of pregnancy in the formation of understanding what is normal in a pregnancy. I will seek to identify the key conditions and processes that influence the ways by which people give meaning to the experiences, risks, and decisions that characterize a pregnancy. The broader impacts of this research include the following: The project will contribute to the interdisciplinary literatures linking gender, reproduction, and medicine. Findings of this study will enhance our knowledge of doctor-patient communication and decision-making in prenatal care, particularly for otherwise underrepresented groups of women. It will help us understand how the construction and communication of ideas about a normal pregnancy can promote or obstruct the efforts of medical practitioners to provide information and care to pregnant women and pregnant women's efforts to seek care. Finally, through dissemination, this research has the potential to improve obstetric practices and contribute to better outcomes for women and their children.
