scholarly journals “It’s a Trash”: Poetic Responses to the Experiences of a Mexican Egg Donor

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather L. Walmsley ◽  
Susan Cox ◽  
Carl Leggo
Keyword(s):  
Single Mother ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Egg Donation ◽  
Egg Donor ◽  
Mexican Woman ◽  
Aesthetic Inquiry ◽  
Fertility Clinic ◽  
Reproductive Tourism ◽  
Found Poetry

This paper explores the use of found poetry as interpretive and aesthetic inquiry into the meaning and experience of reproductive tourism. The context is an ethnographic study of transnational egg donation, focusing upon the fertility services industry in Cancun, Mexico. Our source is an audio-recorded interview conducted with Maria, a young Mexican woman who struggles to maintain her integrity as a single mother donating eggs to a fertility clinic. Drawing upon Maria’s story, we experiment with three forms of found poetry as a method for listening deeply to her voice. In this paper, we share our research process, poems, and reflections.

scholarly journals Using video in childbirth research

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Davis Harte ◽  
Caroline SE Homer ◽  
Athena Sheehan ◽  
Nicky Leap ◽  
Maralyn Foureur
Keyword(s):  
Video Recording ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Ethics Committee ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Australian Health ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Video Research ◽  
Unit Design ◽  
Ethical Approval ◽  
Randomised Controlled

Background: Conducting video-research in birth settings raises challenges for ethics review boards to view birthing women and research-midwives as capable, autonomous decision-makers. Aim: This study aimed to gain an understanding of how the ethical approval process was experienced and to chronicle the perceived risks and benefits. Research design: The Birth Unit Design project was a 2012 Australian ethnographic study that used video recording to investigate the physical design features in the hospital birthing space that might influence both verbal and non-verbal communication and the experiences of childbearing women, midwives and supporters. Participants and research context: Six women, 11 midwives and 11 childbirth supporters were filmed during the women’s labours in hospital birth units and interviewed 6 weeks later. Ethical considerations: The study was approved by an Australian Health Research Ethics Committee after a protracted process of negotiation. Findings: The ethics committee was influenced by a traditional view of research as based on scientific experiments resulting in a poor understanding of video-ethnographic research, a paradigmatic view of the politics and practicalities of modern childbirth processes, a desire to protect institutions from litigation, and what we perceived as a paternalistic approach towards protecting participants, one that was at odds with our aim to facilitate situations in which women could make flexible, autonomous decisions about how they might engage with the research process. Discussion: The perceived need for protection was overly burdensome and against the wishes of the participants themselves; ultimately, this limited the capacity of the study to improve care for women and babies. Conclusion: Recommendations are offered for those involved in ethical approval processes for qualitative research in childbirth settings. The complexity of issues within childbirth settings, as in most modern healthcare settings, should be analysed using a variety of research approaches, beyond efficacy-style randomised controlled trials, to expand and improve practice-based results.

Sperm and Egg Donor Anonymity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Glenn Cohen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Gamete Donation ◽  
Sperm Donor ◽  
Egg Donor ◽  
Gamete Donor ◽  
The World ◽  
Ethical And Legal Issues ◽  
Reproductive Tourism

Gamete donor anonymity has become an increasingly active area of legislative, bioethical, and empirical interest over the last decade or so. This chapter begins by detailing the very different status of gamete donor anonymity, contrasting the United States (where the law does not prohibit it) with the rest of the world (where it has been largely prohibited by law) and examining the effects of these policies. The chapter then examines the major arguments that have been offered in favor of and against mandating nonanonymous gamete donation. In particular, it focuses on the effects of removing anonymity on supply and arguments in favor of ending sperm donor anonymity based on the welfare of donor-conceived children or rights claims by them. The chapter also more briefly considers ethical and legal issues related to donor compensation, accidental incest, information reciprocity between donors and recipients, and reproductive tourism.

scholarly journals “I’ll Tell You What You Need to Know.” How Respondents Negotiate the Sense of Meaning- Making—Methodological Reflections from the Field Based on Ethnographic Study of Lesbian Parenting in Poland

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-139
Author(s):  
Magdalena Wojciechowska
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Comfort Zone ◽  
Know How ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Lesbian Parenting ◽  
Shed Light

The aim of this paper is to shed light on how various interactional and interpretational contexts arising from specific researcher—research participants relationship established in the course of doing ethnographic study on sensitive, and thus often enough resistant to immediate cognition, phenomenon, namely, lesbian parenting in Poland, as well as different ways of embracing these, may factor into the research process. Drawing on specific dilemmas I encountered while doing the study at hand—from engaging a hard-to-reach population that, in a sense, wished to be reached, and the consequences thereof; through being pushed out of the comfort zone as the women under study, in the wake of becoming acquainted with the analysis I offered, “switched” from narrating their “in-orderto motives” to reflecting on the “because motives” behind their actions; to contextualizing emotions arising as my response to experiencing the issues they face (on a daily basis), to name a few—my goal here is to discuss how different ways of collecting and analyzing data—in the context of developing rapport with the women under study—have had an impact on conceptualizing and (re)framing the data at hand.

P–472 Single mothers by choice - experiences of single women seeking treatment at a public fertility clinic in Denmark: A pilot study

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M L Steenberg ◽  
R Sylvest ◽  
E Koert ◽  
L Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Single Mother ◽  
Single Women ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Fertility Treatment ◽  
Fertility Clinic

Abstract Study question Are single women in fertility treatment stigmatised and what do they experience? Summary answer The women did not feel stigmatised. They experienced self-blame and negative thoughts about themselves, despite experiencing empowerment and receiving positive reactions from families and friends. What is known already Since 2007, medical doctors in Denmark have been permitted to offer medically assisted reproduction (MAR) also to single women. Denmark is a welfare state with a public health care sector providing MAR free of charge, 240 days of paid parental leave, and public full-time day-care. There has been an increase in the number of single women deciding to have children through the use of MAR. These women are referred to as ‘single mothers by choice’ (SMC), and they have been criticised for being selfish when raising a child without a father. Previous studies have shown how SMC can feel stigmatised. Study design, size, duration: Semi-structured qualitative interviews at a public fertility clinic in Copenhagen, Denmark. Data collection took place between September and October 2020. Participants/materials, setting, methods The participants were single and childless women (N = 6) undergoing MAR at the Fertility Clinic, Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark. Five women received IVF and one received IUI. The women were between 30 and 40 years old and were all residents in the Capital Region of Denmark. The interviews were audiotaped, anonymised, and transcribed in full. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Main results and the role of chance Single women did not differ from cohabiting women seeking MAR in relation to their experiences and attitudes towards motherhood. Four main themes were identified; (1) Experiences of single women seeking fertility treatment, (2) Emotions associated with becoming a single mother by choice, (3) The decision of becoming a single mother by choice, and (4) Family formation – a social interaction. The women would have preferred to have a child in a relationship with a partner and the shattered dream about the nuclear family has caused a wide range of experiences and emotions. The women did not feel stigmatised but they all had an awareness of the prejudices other people might have towards single mothers by choice. Hence, they were ready to defend their choice if necessary. On the other hand, they had received positive reactions and the process of becoming a single mother by choice was influenced by their social relations with family and friends. Despite their dream of the nuclear family the women choose to become SMC because motherhood was of such importance and they feared they would otherwise become too old to have children – the biological clock was ticking. Limitations, reasons for caution The participants were recruited from a public fertility clinic in the Capital Region of Denmark and may not be representative of all single women seeking MAR. Results might not be transferable to other countries with a different cultural context regarding the societal acceptance of different ways to establish a family. Wider implications of the findings: This study contributes to the understanding of the experiences of single women seeking fertility treatment in a welfare state where there are no differences in the possibilities for different social classes to seek MAR in the public health care sector. Trial registration number N/A

Egg Donation and Exotic Beauty

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daisy Deomampo
Keyword(s):  
Skin Color ◽  
Skin Tone ◽  
Egg Donation ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Indian Women ◽  
Egg Donor ◽  
Egg Donors ◽  
Donor Egg ◽  
Biological Race ◽  
Racial Hierarchies

Chapter 3 analyzes constructions of skin color and race in intended parents’ narratives about the experience of selecting an egg donor. This chapter shows how egg donors of different backgrounds are differently valued, bolstering social hierarchies. At the same time, the chapter describes the diversity of ways that intended parents approach race and skin tone when choosing an egg donor. In contrast to dominant assumptions that intended parents seek donors who match their own ethnic backgrounds in order to reproduce whiteness, the process of egg donation represented an opportunity for many intended parents to subvert racial hierarchies by selecting Indian donors with darker skin tones. The chapter argues that such narratives, however, misrecognize donor egg selection as an opening to challenge racial hierarchies; instead, such decisions rely on essentialized notions of race and beauty that exoticize Indian women and reflect new articulations of biological race.

Have Eggs, Will Travel: The Experiences and Ethics of Global Egg Donation

Somatechnics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Kroløkke
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Egg Donation ◽  
Photographic Material ◽  
Egg Donor ◽  
Egg Donors

Feminist scholars have critically questioned the practices and ethics of reproductive mobility. While the reproductive mobility of fertility patients has been foregrounded, little is known of egg donor mobility including the experiences of travelling internationally to donate eggs. Based on written stories and photographic material provided by forty-two egg donors, this article uses feminist cluster analysis and the concept of eggpreneurship to illustrate how global egg donors negotiate reproductive agency and choice when they travel internationally to donate their eggs. In their stories, global egg donors position egg donation through a moral economy of gifting and an affective economy of desire in which reproductive mobility is transformed from a gift to a trip of a lifetime.

scholarly journals Is Information Power? Comparing Anonymous and Open Egg Donation

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Speier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Assisted Reproductive Technologies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Fertility Treatment ◽  
Egg Donation ◽  
Gamete Donation ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Egg Donor

Both the Czech Republic and the United States are destinations for cross-border reproductive travellers. For North Americans, including Canadians, who opt to travel to the Czech Republic for IVF using an egg donor, they are entering a fertility industry that is anonymous. This makes the Czech Republic different from other European countries that necessitate open gamete donation, as in Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom. For reproductive travellers coming to the United States for fertility treatment, there is a wider menu of choices regarding egg donation given the vastly unregulated nature of the industry. More recently, professionals in the industry are pushing for ‘open’ egg donation. For intended parents traveling to either location seeking in vitro fertilization using an egg donor, they must choose whether or not to pursue open or closed donation. As pre-conception parents, they navigate competing discourses of healthy parenting of donor-conceived offspring. They must be reflexive about their choices, and protective when weighing their options, always keeping their future child's mental, physical and genetic health in mind. Drawing from ethnographic data collected over the course of six years in the United States and the Czech Republic, this paper will explore both programs, paying special attention to the question of how gamete donation and global assisted reproductive technologies intersect with different notions about healthy pre-conception parenting.

scholarly journals Juggling Multiple Identities: The Untold Stories Behind a PhD Ethnographic Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 160940691988414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junxia Hou ◽  
Anwei Feng
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Identity Shifts ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Reflexive Analysis

This article explores the fluidity and dynamicity of a Chinese PhD student’s research experience in negotiating her identities in a longitudinal ethnographic study, first in China and then in the UK. It adopts retrospective and reflexive document analysis of research journals written by her over a 5-year period of overseas study. The analytical framework for the critical reflection of knowledge production synthesizes key concepts of ontology, epistemology, reflexivity, positionality, serendipity, and intersectionality to describe and interpret the researcher’s struggles between insider and outsider, uncertain feelings about different values and beliefs, and emotions due to changing circumstances of family life. The reflexive analysis indicates that PhD students who undertake qualitative studies would function in a far more fluid manner than the often simplistically documented binary roles between an “insider” participant and an outsider researcher in their theses. The article argues that this fluidity in identity shifts and complexity in data collection and analysis are in most cases part and parcel of the research process, which is crucial for researchers to be aware of. Researchers should feel confident to tell the “messy stories” reflexively so as to enhance credibility and trustworthiness of the research findings.

scholarly journals Tales from the Drop Zone: roles, risks and dramaturgical dilemmas

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-259
Author(s):  
James Hardie-Bick ◽  
Susie Scott
Keyword(s):  
Field Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork

This article critically revisits conventional understandings of ethnographic fieldwork roles, arguing that representations of the covert insider as heroic and adventurous are often idealistic and unrealistic. Drawing on one of the authors’ experiences of being both a covert and overt researcher in an ethnographic study of skydiving, we identify some of the dramaturgical dilemmas that can unexpectedly affect relations with participants throughout the research process. Our overall aim is to highlight how issues of trust, betrayal, exposure and vulnerability, together with the practical considerations of field research, combine to shape the researcher’s interactional strategies of identity work.

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