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Better understanding attitudes toward pregnancy – a potent predictor of adolescent pregnancy – could help explain the high adolescent pregnancy rate in Nunavik, Canada. The objective of this study was to assess the distribution of different attitudes toward pregnancy and the factors associated with high pregnancy likelihood attitudes (HPLA; favourable, indifferent, and ambivalent), focusing on the perceived benefits of childbearing (BOC). T-tests, chi-square tests, and logistics regressions were performed based the answers of 159 Inuit women aged 16 to 20 years from the Qanuilirpitaa? survey. About 43% were ambivalent, 16% favourable, 5% indifferent, and 35% unfavourable toward pregnancy. Bivariate analysis indicate that the HPLA group was more likely to work, to report less frequent positive interactions, and to show a higher BOC score compared to others. Multivariate analysis show that an increased BOC score was associated with HPLA (OR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.01 − 1.18). Perceiving that a baby would strengthen the relationship with the other parent (OR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.15 − 2.37) and that it would help to access housing were individually associated with HPLA (OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.02 − 2.10). Findings provide evidence to support Inuit adolescents’ reproductive choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we contribute to a growing body of literature that explores how risk discourse functions in the (globalised) neoliberal era of ‘intensive mothering’. A comparison of traditional Chinese medicine and Western biomedicine indicates that in these two approaches to medicine, pregnancy-related risks are derived from different sources and seen in different ways. In this article, we examine how women with a Chinese background living in North America negotiate these differences. More specifically, we use data from a qualitative research study to examine how 15 pregnant Chinese Canadian women living in Vancouver, British Columbia, understand and experience pregnancy-related risk and lifestyle directives. Examining data from a Foucauldian perspective that views ‘risk’ as a biopolitical technique of governance, we show that the ways in which the majority of the participants use traditional Chinese medicine and Western biomedicine – and identify risk – change as they move through the stages of pregnancy. While many of them integrated aspects of both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine prior to pregnancy (using Western medicine for acute issues and traditional Chinese medicine to restore bodily balance and strength), once pregnant the majority of the women in the study used biomedical ‘proof’ to guide them through a healthy pregnancy. They tended to avoid traditional Chinese remedies due to the ‘risk’ of teratogenic effects, and also avoided family advice intended to ensure bodily balance. Once the child was born, the participants viewed the (maternal) body in a different way: as a body out of balance in the yin-yang sense – and in need of traditionally ordained practices (typically called ‘doing the month’). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we contribute to a growing body of literature that explores how risk discourse functions in the (globalised) neoliberal era of ‘intensive mothering’. A comparison of traditional Chinese medicine and Western biomedicine indicates that in these two approaches to medicine, pregnancy-related risks are derived from different sources and seen in different ways. In this article, we examine how women with a Chinese background living in North America negotiate these differences. More specifically, we use data from a qualitative research study to examine how 15 pregnant Chinese Canadian women living in Vancouver, British Columbia, understand and experience pregnancy-related risk and lifestyle directives. Examining data from a Foucauldian perspective that views ‘risk’ as a biopolitical technique of governance, we show that the ways in which the majority of the participants use traditional Chinese medicine and Western biomedicine – and identify risk – change as they move through the stages of pregnancy. While many of them integrated aspects of both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine prior to pregnancy (using Western medicine for acute issues and traditional Chinese medicine to restore bodily balance and strength), once pregnant the majority of the women in the study used biomedical ‘proof’ to guide them through a healthy pregnancy. They tended to avoid traditional Chinese remedies due to the ‘risk’ of teratogenic effects, and also avoided family advice intended to ensure bodily balance. Once the child was born, the participants viewed the (maternal) body in a different way: as a body out of balance in the yin-yang sense – and in need of traditionally ordained practices (typically called ‘doing the month’). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]