Abstract(s)
The process leading to irreversible sterilization for nulliparous women
can be a difficult but meaningful journey. This paper aims to
understand how this experience is lived by childfree women as they
navigate the Quebec healthcare system. I examine the administrative
challenges and the emotional difficulties involved in this process and
the means used to overcome these difficulties as they try to undergo a
sterilization procedure. This research is based on the participation of
thirteen women who wish to undergo tubal ligation despite not having
children. I conducted semi-structured interviews using Internet
videoconferencing platforms in the summer 2020. The results of the
study demonstrate such women are often labelled as being on the
margin of the social norms that define motherhood. This emerges as a
form of biosociality and is linked to relations of biopower that emerge
in interactions with physicians in the healthcare system. This research
provides an anthropological analysis of the experiences of women
who are childfree by choice as a result of irreversible sterilization, and
it contributes to understanding the emergence of marginal identities in
the context of medical practices.