“If A Vine does not produce Fruits and Flowers, People throw it away” The Discursive Construction and Negotiation of Stigma related to Childlessness in rural Pakistan

Abstract

Being childless is an unbearable condition for women in the pronatalist Pakistani society and has a prominent place in community dialogues. Childless women bear the brunt of childlessness. These women face stigma expressed in community members’ talks. This study presents a discourse analysis of community members’ thoughts on childless women. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observations and analysed using a social-constructionist approach to discourse analyses. Four interpretative repertoires -childlessness as the will of God, childless women as worthless, or as ill-boding women and a medical repertoire are prominent in the community. These repertoires are used in different contexts to both stigmatise and destigmatise childless women. This study focused on the views of different stakeholders with both a direct and an indirect link with childlessness, such as childless women, their partners, older women, and healthcare providers in the community. We plea through this study that community members should be sensitised about possible stigmatising behaviour with childless women. More research should be conducted to find out the medical reasons of childlessness in the area.