METHOD
This was an exploratory, qualitative and descriptive study that investigated 25 women who met the following inclusion criteria: having been diagnosed with sickle cell anemia; being registered in the outpatient department of the University Hospital Professor Edgar Santos (HUPES) and/or being linked to the Association of People with Sickle Cell Disease from Bahia (ABADFAL); being an adult between 18 to 49 years of age; and, having reproductive experience.This study was approved by the Ethics Committee in Research (EEUFBA) through Protocol no. 12/2010; CAAE. 0087.0.053.000-07, and met the recommendations of Resolution no. 196/96 of the National Health Council.Empirical data were collected through open interviews when women were urged to respond to the following request: Tell us about your experience with pregnancy and sickle cell anemia. The location of interviews was previously negotiated with each participant so they occurred at the clinic and at home, in the period from August to September 2010.For organization, tabulation and analysis of data, we opted for the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD), which is a qualitative way of representing the thoughts of the community. This is done by aggregating discursive contents of similar meaning, issued by different people in a single speech-synthesis, in response to open questions in an interview(7).