Women, Literacy and Reproductive Health

The study sets out to analyse how one might best conceptualise the relationship between literacy and reproductive health care practices and the social world of the informants in the field site by taking the case of women attending a day hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa. The research method chosen is primarily ethnographic in nature. The data collection tools used in the study are interviews, participant observation and the recording of social narratives to develop an account of literacy and reproductive health care practices. By looking at various bodily representations such as experiences of pain, wounding, the open and closed body, and the social symbolism of pregnancy and childbirth, The Author addresses issues of medical technologies and reproductive health discourse. The Author suggests that future health care initiatives need to take cognisance of patient own literacy practices, their existing cultural understanding of their bodies, health and disease.