Pregnancy as a Rite of Passage:Liminality, Rituals & Communitas

Denise Côté-Arsenault, PhD, RNC, FNAP,Davya Brody, RNC, MFA, MS

Mary-Therese Dombeck, PhD, Dmin, RNUniversity of Rochester, School of Nursing

Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health 24(2), Winter 2009

Key Words: Pregnancy, rite of passage, liminality, rituals, communitas, personhood, case studies

Problematique

How is Pregnancy be explained/explored as a rite of passage using the lens of liminality by van Gennep and Turner through case studies?

Topic/Subject &/or Scope and LimitationExploring/explaining Pregnancy as rite of passage &/or

liminal phase

Theoretical/ConceptualVan Gennep’s Rite of Passage and Turner’s

Liminality & Communitas

ObjectiveTo introduce the perspective of Pregnancy as a rite of

passage w/ a transformative liminal experience

MethodologyThrough Case Studies/Applications, usefulness of the

framework for clinicians and scholars are explored

Limited Perceptions on Pregnancy

-Medical Lens (Davis-Floyd 1992)

-Physiological state/aspect (Cunningham, Leveno, Bloom, Hauth, Gilstrap & Wenstrom 2005, Thomas 1993)

Psychological Views-Psychological Disequilibrium (Bibring 1959)

-Psychobiology of Pregnancy (Benedek 1970)

-Pregnancy as a change in a woman’s state of consciousness (Colman and Colman 1971; 1973.1974)

-Psychoanalysis, social pychology and cognitive mapping (Rubin 1984)

-Psychological processes thru assimilation of motherhood (Mercer 2004)

Rite of PassageRites

“enabl(ing) the individual to pass from one defined position to another w/ch is equally well defined” (van Gennep)

-Change within social structure (rules, roles, & relationship, etc)

-Initiation, transition, movement from former position to a new status

-3 parts: pre-liminal, liminal, post-liminal

Liminality

Liminal – middle part of van Gennep’s rite of passage

“liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial. As such, their ambiguous & indeterminate attributes are expressed by a rich variety of symbols that ritualize social and cultural transitions...” (Turner 1969)

3 Phases of changing status in society

1. separation, or the process of moving out of or away from the position once held in society (boy, girl, unmarried, child)

2. Marginality or liminality, person has not yet assumed a new role in society (teenagers, engaged but not yet married, pregnancy)

3. Aggregation, person assumes a new societal role following a separation & liminal process (woman, man, adult, married, mother)

Turner’s Liminality

• model

Communitas

-an aspect of liminality described in depth by Turner as an experience shared by a group of persons in similar transitional situations.

“anti-structure” (Turner 1977)

Feeling of fear & uncertainty

Pregnancy as a Liminal Space/ Pregnant Woman as Liminal Entity

Pregnant woman as ambiguous being

“The structural ‘invisibility’ of liminal persons has twofold character...once no longer classified, and not yet classified.” (Turner 1967/1987)

‘betwixt and between – ‘mother’ nor ‘not-mother’

Liminality as Creation

Creating a work art & Creating a Child

(an IDEA into a CELL into a baby

an artwork )

Negative space-the image of what you will become (mother), and what you will create a child) BUT what is not-YET-there

Three case studies

1. Typical Pregnancy

2. Complicated Pregnancy

3. Atypical Pregnancy

*3 models of pregnancy

Case Study 1: Typical Pregnancy-Jackie, 28 year old pregnant

Rite of passage: nausea, vomiting, pants that no longer fit, alteration of clothes, offering of baby names

Communitas: Childbirth classes WITH the husband, baby showers given BY FRIENDS,

-12 hours of labor, 1 hour of pushing, then

Aggregation: A healthy baby was born!

Jackie is already a mother!

Case Study 2: Complicated PregnancyElla, 34 years old

Rite of passage: sharing of excitement, comparing notes,

Communitas: baby shower,

-troubling wetness, fetal monitoring, uterine contractions, infection

-baby Joseph was born BUT he lived for 2 hours

-photos taken, hand & footprints,

-small memorial service

Case Study 2

Aggregation ?????

Ella slipped into a depression, alone, empty,

Left in frightening place of being between roles: she feels like a mother, YET, has no baby to hold or bring home to complete the rituals of incorporation

Case Study 3: Atypical Pregnancy

-Theresa, 19 years old

Rite of passage: midwife confirmation, pamphlets re fetal growth

-the father of the baby was incarcerated for parole violation

-Theresa became ambivalent about the pregnancy; resistant to prenatal care

Rite of passage ????? (tentative)

Case Study 3

Communitas ?????

-no husband, mother cant accompany her during the labor period

Theresa experienced agitation, pain medication, uncontrolled rapid breathing, TRAUMA,

Case Study 3-Then, a healthy baby boy was born!

Theresa REFUSED to look at or HOLD HER baby

Subsequently, the baby was given up for adoption

Aggregation ?????

Theresa was unable to acknowledge the state of pregnancy, and the role of motherhood

Significance of the Study

“Viewing pregnancy as a rite of passage with liminal phase provides a valuable framework for understanding women’s responses to pregnancy as well as serving as a guide for areas of focus needed for pregnancy support.”