DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Negotiating Destigmatization Processes among Women with Childbirth-Related Injuries

华盛顿大学博士候选人艾莉森·海勒在卡罗琳·萨金特博士的指导下，将研究在消除污名来源后，如何通过谈判改变被污名化的身份。这项研究将在那些因分娩时受伤而寻求修复手术的妇女中进行，这些妇女会导致慢性尿失禁。与分娩有关的伤害，被广泛认为是一种严重的耻辱性疾病，通过相对简单的手术治疗是非常容易的，尽管历史上很难进入。这项研究将在尼日尔南部的两个诊所和周围社区进行。研究人员将调查妇女的手术前和手术后的经验与分娩有关的伤害和动态的社会关系。她还将收集有关更广泛社会中与分娩有关的伤害的代表性以及各种当地利益攸关方的观点的数据。40名妇女将接受至少两次采访：一次是手术前在诊所，一次是手术后5至10个月在妇女的家乡。为了丰富手术后的记录，将从这些妇女中选择一个子样本进行每月随访，并选择三名妇女进行深入的人种学案例研究。此外，包括社会空间的行为者的观点，如丈夫，共同妻子，亲属，临床医生，宗教领袖，以及参与分娩相关伤害根除行动的当地非营利组织雇员，将被纳入。该项目将整合定量和定性方法，包括：自由列表和排名排序练习，半结构化和生活史访谈，参与者观察，社会关系映射，扩展案例研究和视觉内容分析。这项研究是重要的，因为很少有以前的民族志或理论研究的过程中去污名化。该项目旨在发展污名理论的这一未被充分探索的方面，从而更好地理解去污名化过程如何以及何时起作用，并产生一个去污名化的理论模型。本研究也具有现实意义。尼日尔出现了大量侧重于预防和修复与分娩有关的伤害的组织和机构。然而，人们对这些妇女离开诊所回家后的情况或她们被污名化的身份知之甚少。这项研究将有助于填补这一重要空白。此外，支持这项研究支持研究生的教育。

Washington University doctoral candidate, Alison Heller, with the guidance of Dr. Carolyn Sargent, will undertake research on how the transformation of a stigmatized identity is negotiated after the source of stigma is removed. The research will be conducted among women who seek repair surgeries for injuries sustained during childbirth that result in chronic incontinence. Childbirth-related injuries, widely understood as a profoundly stigmatizing condition, are highly treatable through a relatively straightforward, although historically difficult to access, surgical procedure. The research will be conducted in two clinics and the surrounding communities in southern Niger. The researcher will investigate women's pre- and post-surgical experiences with childbirth-related injuries and the dynamics of their social relationships. She also will collect data on representations of childbirth-related injuries in the broader society and the perspectives of a variety of local stakeholders. Forty women will be interviewed at least twice: once at the clinic before surgery, and once five to ten months after surgery in the woman's home village. To enrich post-surgical accounts, a sub-sample of these women will be chosen for monthly follow-up visits, and three women will be chosen for in-depth ethnographic case studies. Additionally, perspectives of actors who comprise the social space, such as husbands, co-wives, kin, clinicians, religious leaders, and local nonprofit organization employees involved in childbirth-related injury eradication initiatives, will be incorporated. This project will integrate both quantitative and qualitative methods, including: free-listing and rank ordering exercises, semi-structured and life history interviews, participant observation, social relationship mapping, extended case studies, and visual content analysis. This research is important because there has been little previous ethnographic or theoretical research on processes of destigmatization. This project aims to develop this under-explored facet of stigma theory, resulting in both a better understanding of how and when destigmatization processes work, and the production of a theoretical model of destigmatization. The research also has practical significance. Niger has experienced a proliferation of organizations and institutions focusing on childbirth-related injury prevention and repair. However, little is known about what happens to these women, or their stigmatized identities, once they leave clinics and return home. This research will contribute to filling that important gap. In addition, supporting this research supports a graduate student's education.