Tackling Knowledge and Reining Uncertainty through Risk Rituals in the Transition to Motherhood

Abstract

This study uses a fresh approach to demonstrate how the transition to motherhood is culturally marked and why this is so. In-depth discussions with 30 female doctors in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, revealed that awareness of risks to their health and social well-being shaped their pregnancy experience and led them to undertake various rituals to alleviate their anxiety and protect themselves and their babies from miscarriage, disability, and complications during childbirth. The doctors stated that they performed such rituals on the advice of their families, believing that doing so would not harm them or their babies but could be beneficial. The distinctive character of these rituals is that they are ritual responses and adaptations to the perceived hazards and uncertainties posed by the transition to motherhood. The new approach used in this study first identifies contemporary pregnancy risk rituals. Then, it shows that some of these have been adapted from traditional avoidance rituals to modern times. Finally, it identified those rites of passage and practices that may compel women to adopt self-limiting routines or accept taboos.