What do we hear in the women's narrative? The starting place for all four women's stories was their excitement about being pregnant and their commitment to doing all the right things that pregnant women are expected to do, such as attending for antenatal screening. None of the women gave much thought to the screening process, never considering they were at risk of HIV. One week and one phone call later and their lives would be disrupted.
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HIV in women who are pregnant can be transmitted to their unborn child
Becker proposes that stories of disruption are cultural in nature and invariably stories of difference because, regardless of the nature of the disruption, it is felt most acutely when people view themselves as being at odds with what they and others view as normal for their gender, age and circumstances (Becker, 1997). The women experienced the greatest distress at times when the experience they were living through clashed with dominant cultural narratives about how life should be. A diagnosis of HIV constituted a major threat to their health, their relationships and their social identity. As pregnant women, however, the threat posed by HIV was experienced most significantly in relation to their unborn child.
Most of the women's narratives conveyed their initial belief that HIV happened to other people. Being diagnosed as HIV positive themselves, therefore, forced them into an experience of "otherness". Renegotiation required them to present moral or normalising accounts of their lives in order to reconcile the experience of becoming the other. In order to distance themselves from "others", the women presented evidence of their moral selves as "good people". Then, to present their behaviour as "moral" - and therefore "normal" - they were required to distance themselves from the behaviours they associated with HIV.
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BOX 1. COMPOSITE NARRATIVE FROM STUDY PARTICIPANTS
Ultimately, through a process of revision and renegotiation all four women managed to create continuity after the disruption. They found solace in the medical benefits to be gained for themselves and their babies, from timely knowledge of their HIV status. While their HIV diagnosis constituted a disruption to their biographies, their role as mother provided a focus for regaining continuity in their lives - their babies became a metaphor for hope and orientation towards the future.
The findings of this study also highlight the healing nature of narratives. Through the reconstruction and telling of their stories, the women were actively resisting the threat posed by HIV. Sociologist Arthur Frank (2007) reminds us that people can be thrust into becoming patients with terrible suddenness, and that health professionals who have had some preparation and training must therefore recognise "discoveries of meaning". Hence, "narrative care", as defined by Frank (2007), requires "help(ing) people who have fallen out of the story of which they were part to find a new story of which they can be part".
While the four women came from very culturally diverse backgrounds, their experiences of disruption were strikingly similar, underscoring the universality of prevailing normalising ideologies attributed to women, pregnancy and motherhood. Repositioning the crisis as a beginning, rather than an end, required them to rethink all those discourses on normalcy, allowing them to rewrite themselves into their own life story.
* This is a summary of: Kelly C et ai (2012) Creating continuity out of the disruption of a diagnosis of HIV during pregnancy, Journal of Clincial Nursing; 21: 11-12, 1554-1562.
What do we hear in the women's narrative? The starting place for all four women's stories was their excitement about being pregnant and their commitment to doing all the right things that pregnant women are expected to do, such as attending for antenatal screening. None of the women gave much thought to the screening process, never considering they were at risk of HIV. One week and one phone call later and their lives would be disrupted.View Image - HIV in women who are pregnant can be transmitted to their unborn childBecker proposes that stories of disruption are cultural in nature and invariably stories of difference because, regardless of the nature of the disruption, it is felt most acutely when people view themselves as being at odds with what they and others view as normal for their gender, age and circumstances (Becker, 1997). The women experienced the greatest distress at times when the experience they were living through clashed with dominant cultural narratives about how life should be. A diagnosis of HIV constituted a major threat to their health, their relationships and their social identity. As pregnant women, however, the threat posed by HIV was experienced most significantly in relation to their unborn child.Most of the women's narratives conveyed their initial belief that HIV happened to other people. Being diagnosed as HIV positive themselves, therefore, forced them into an experience of "otherness". Renegotiation required them to present moral or normalising accounts of their lives in order to reconcile the experience of becoming the other. In order to distance themselves from "others", the women presented evidence of their moral selves as "good people". Then, to present their behaviour as "moral" - and therefore "normal" - they were required to distance themselves from the behaviours they associated with HIV.View Image - BOX 1. COMPOSITE NARRATIVE FROM STUDY PARTICIPANTSUltimately, through a process of revision and renegotiation all four women managed to create continuity after the disruption. They found solace in the medical benefits to be gained for themselves and their babies, from timely knowledge of their HIV status. While their HIV diagnosis constituted a disruption to their biographies, their role as mother provided a focus for regaining continuity in their lives - their babies became a metaphor for hope and orientation towards the future.The findings of this study also highlight the healing nature of narratives. Through the reconstruction and telling of their stories, the women were actively resisting the threat posed by HIV. Sociologist Arthur Frank (2007) reminds us that people can be thrust into becoming patients with terrible suddenness, and that health professionals who have had some preparation and training must therefore recognise "discoveries of meaning". Hence, "narrative care", as defined by Frank (2007), requires "help(ing) people who have fallen out of the story of which they were part to find a new story of which they can be part".While the four women came from very culturally diverse backgrounds, their experiences of disruption were strikingly similar, underscoring the universality of prevailing normalising ideologies attributed to women, pregnancy and motherhood. Repositioning the crisis as a beginning, rather than an end, required them to rethink all those discourses on normalcy, allowing them to rewrite themselves into their own life story.* This is a summary of: Kelly C et ai (2012) Creating continuity out of the disruption of a diagnosis of HIV during pregnancy, Journal of Clincial Nursing; 21: 11-12, 1554-1562.
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