Embodied Pregnancy and Biomedical Support

Experiences of Middle-Class Women in Bangladesh

Abstract

This article examines how middle-class women in Bangladesh experience health-seeking support within biomedicalised maternity care, highlighting tensions between women’s embodied knowledge and technology-driven medical authority. Based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in Dhaka, including interviews with thirty women who delivered via caesarean section and observations in private and public hospitals, the study explores doctor–patient interactions and the structural factors shaping pregnancy care. I show that biomedical practice prioritises technological assessments and clinical categorisation over women’s lived experiences. Women with ‘high-risk’ pregnancies received attentive care and empathetic guidance, enabling them to manage physical and emotional challenges successfully. In contrast, women with ‘low-risk’ pregnancies often had their distress minimised or dismissed, as their symptoms did not fit established clinical parameters. The findings demonstrate that medical acknowledgement depends on diagnostic validation rather than the severity of embodied suffering. The article contributes to debates on medicalisation, reproductive governance, and the social construction of pregnancy.