The Biomedical Subjectification of Women of Advanced Maternal Age: Reproductive Risk, Privilege, and the Illusion of Control.

The United States is experiencing a demographic transition toward older motherhood. Biomedicine classifies pregnancies among all women of advanced maternal age (AMA) as high-risk; paradoxically, women having first births at AMA are typically economically and racially privileged, which can reduce the risk of risks. This article examines the implications of the biomedicalization of AMA for first-time mothers, age 35 and older, using qualitative interviews. We find participants had substantial cultural health capital, which informed their critiques of AMA and the medical model of birth. When they found themselves subjected to biomedical protocols and concerned about reproductive risk as their pregnancies progressed, their subsequent biomedical subjectification compelled most to accept biomedical interventions. Consequently, some participants had traumatic birth experiences. Our findings illustrate that while first-time mothers of AMA anticipated that they would have more control over the birth process because of their advantages, ultimately, most did not.

Exploring the experiences of pregnant women in the U.S. during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this paper, we integrate the stress process model with symbolic interactionism to frame our analysis of interviews with 35 women who were pregnant and/or gave birth during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. We detail three stressors, highlight their variation, and discuss how they coped with these stressors. Women reported having to navigate contradictory information about the public health crisis, but Black participants simultaneously endured added strain from a heightened awareness of racialized violence. To cope with an overabundance of precarious and contradictory messages, some women sought out information (i.e., information gatherers), others eschewed information (i.e., information avoiders), and most established protective "bubbles." Next, women experienced disruptions in pregnancy rituals but coped by reframing their expectations. This stressor, however, was less acute for women with a prior birth. Third, women shared feelings of social isolation and reduced social support, which were intensified if pregnancy complications occurred. Women coped by relying on telecommunication and at-home monitoring devices. Our study shows how pregnant women experienced and coped through adversity to mitigate stressors amid pandemonium.

Thinking through every step: how people with spinal cord injuries relearn to walk.

In this article we explore how people with incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI) create meaning out of their changing bodies as they undergo a therapeutic intervention called locomotor training (LT). Therapeutic interventions like LT are used to promote the recovery of walking ability among individuals with iSCI. The chronological nature of this study--interviews at three points throughout the 12-week intervention--enhances understanding of the recovering self after spinal cord injury. Drawing on a constructivist theoretical framework, we organize data according to three narrative frames. Participants interpreted LT as (a) a physical change that was meaningful because of its social significance, (b) a coping strategy for dealing with the uncertainty of long-term recovery, and (c) a moral strategy to reconstitute the self. We offer findings that lay the conceptual groundwork for generating new knowledge about what is important to people with iSCI as they relearn how to walk.

The interaction of drag queens and gay men in public and private spaces.

This study examines the issue of internal segregation within the gay community, focusing on the ways by which the drag queen subculture is distanced from larger mainstream gay society. Through the use of institutional ethnography, symbolic interactionism, and a naturalist approach to sociology, the researchers sought to understand the subjective experience of the drag queen, in particular how drag queens perceive their interactions with mainstream gay society. Data for this study were collected through a series of observations conducted in a variety of spatial contexts and interviews with 18 drag queens. Findings indicate that spatial distance between the drag queens and the mainstream gay men is dependent on both the social context and the level of professionalization of the drag queen. Although drag queens' perceptions of their status in the gay community are also dependent on the latter, discussions of relationship difficulties and the quest for a long-term romantic partner illustrate that discrimination within the gay community is both widespread and complex.