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Pregnancy starts with a literacy event: pregnancy and ante-natal care as texctually mediated social experiences.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>09/2008
<mark>Journal</mark>Ethnography
Issue number3
Volume9
Number of pages27
Pages (from-to)377-403
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

As a literacy researcher my academic attention is usually focussed on how other people use reading and writing in their everyday lives. In this article, for the first time I turn my researcher’s gaze onto myself. I present a portion of my autoethnogaphy which aimed to document my becoming a mother as a ‘textually-mediated’ experience. I discuss three aspects of this experience: (1) the role of the ‘Green Notes’, a personal maternity record, as an example of how the literacy practices of pregnancy and ante-natal care are shaped by institutional norms and procedures; (2) the significance of my own reading and writing activities in the process of ‘making sense’; and (3) the role of reading and writing in what I have called ‘difficult moments’. The paper concludes with a reflection on the potential of autoethnography for social sciences generally and literacy studies more particularly.