Randwick International of Social Science Journal
Vol. 4 No. 2 (2023): RISS Journal, April

Narratives of Slow Violence Fear by Greek-speaking Pregnant Women during the COVID-19 Period

Vasiliki Saini (Graduate of Master Course: Cultural Anthropology: Sustainable Citizenship, Utrecht University. General Secretariat for Demography, Family Policy and Gender Equality in Greece.)



Article Info

Publish Date
30 Apr 2023

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic pregnant women had to cope with the unknown and unprecedented challenges the coronavirus health crisis created. The Greek state and the biomedical discourse classified pregnant women as vulnerable due to the increased risk of severe illness and mortality rate of pregnant women infected by the coronavirus, depriving them of any kind of agency. However, the fear of slow violence of potential COVID-19 infection to the fetus’s health and the health of pregnant women led them, and particularly, the participants in this research, to act agentively as self risk-managers and to proceed to the adoption of several measures in order to alleviate this fear and to safeguard their own and their fetus’s health. These measures consisted of self-regulated preventive measures, mitigation strategies, and the COVID-19 vaccine uptake or refusal. These findings constituted the voice of the interviewees and their experience of being pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic. They were the outcome of the conduct of eighteen online formal semi-structured in-depth online interviews and netnography. The research lasted three months, from 10 February 2022 to 10 May 2022, and was conducted in framework of the thesis: The experience of pregnancy in the COVID-19 period in Greece at the Master Course: Cultural Anthropology-Sustainable Citizenship of Utrecht University.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

rissj

Publisher

Subject

Humanities Social Sciences

Description

The RISS Journal publishes research and analysis papers in the fields of social science include humanities such as anthropology, business studies, communication studies, corporate governance, criminology, history, culture, cross-cultural studies, ethics, education, economy, geography, philosophy, ...