“Passing children” and precarious pathways: on the contingency of reproductive life courses in Cameroon

Abstract

This article explores the implications of reproductive mishaps for the life courses of women in eastern Cameroon. Based on 15 months of anthropological fieldwork in a Gbigbil village, it describes local ideas about the expected unfolding of physical and social life trajectories, and the ways in which reproductive losses jeopardize these anticipated pathways. The life history of one informant shows that repeated child death can create a paradoxical situation in which a woman feels, at the same time, physically old and socially young, and that decisions for the future are informed by these contradictory sensations. The particular dynamics brought about by reproductive loss, then, challenge common views of the life course as a predefined pathway through consecutive and clearly defined life stages. Instead, they reveal that reproductive biographies are contingent and unpredictable, and that life stages may be paradoxically congruent rather than mutually exclusive. This, in turn, affects the way in which women give direction to their precarious reproductive pathways.

Keywords::

• Ethnography
• fetal loss
• reproduction

Declaration of interest: The author reports no declaration of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

ⁱIn this article, the author uses the notions of “reproductive loss” and “reproductive mishap” interchangeably, to indicate any disruption that might occur during or right after pregnancy. Despite the potential shortcomings of these terms (Bledsoe & Scherrer, 2007; Jenkins & Inhorn, 2003), they are appropriate for the discussion in this article, which focuses on women's sense of loss of ‘force’ and the resulting mismatch with expected physical and social life trajectories.

ⁱⁱIn case study research, the selection of an “extreme case” – as Yvette's would be termed – is proposed for exploratory research aiming to uncover mechanisms that may also underlie less extreme cases. The extreme case may still be a typical case, but just make common dynamics more explicit (Gerring, 2007).