Allan Helen
University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK.
Nurs Inq. 2007 Jun;14(2):132-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1800.2007.00362.x.
This paper explores the experiences of infertile women who occupy a liminal space in society, and argues that the fertility clinic served as a space to tolerate women's experiences of liminality. It provided not only rituals aimed at transition to pregnancy, but also a space where women's liminal experiences, which are caused by the existential chaos of infertility, could be tolerated. The British experience seemed to differ from the American one identified in the literature, where self-management and peer group support are described as strategies used by infertile women to manage infertility. The British women in this study did not appear to draw so much on self-management or peer group support to deal with their experiences of infertility. They appeared to be isolated in their experience. The clinic thus provided a space in which recognition was given to their intensely private experiences of difference from those in the outside fertile world and allowed them to manage these socially unacceptable, culturally taboo and invisible experiences. However, because of its very limited success rate in enabling women to become pregnant, rather than facilitating the transition of status from infertile to fertile woman, the clinic also served to reinforce the liminal experiences of those women who remained infertile. Inadvertently, the clinic offered a way of being in limbo while at the same time reinforcing the liminal experiences of women.
本文探讨了在社会中处于临界状态的不孕女性的经历，并认为生育诊所是一个能够包容女性临界经历的空间。它不仅提供了旨在实现怀孕过渡的仪式，还提供了一个空间，在这个空间里，由不孕的生存混乱所引发的女性临界经历能够得到包容。英国的情况似乎与文献中所提及的美国情况有所不同，在美国，自我管理和同伴群体支持被描述为不孕女性应对不孕问题所采用的策略。本研究中的英国女性似乎并没有过多地借助自我管理或同伴群体支持来应对她们的不孕经历。她们在自己的经历中显得孤立无援。因此，诊所提供了一个空间，在这个空间里，她们与外部生育世界不同的极其私密的经历得到了认可，并且使她们能够应对这些在社会上不可接受、在文化上属于禁忌且无形的经历。然而，由于其帮助女性怀孕的成功率非常有限，生育诊所非但没有促进女性从不孕状态向可孕状态的转变，反而强化了那些仍然不孕的女性的临界经历。不经意间，诊所提供了一种处于中间状态的方式，同时又强化了女性的临界经历。
