Pregnancy decision-making among HIV positive women in Northern Vietnam: reconsidering reproductive choice

The global HIV epidemic confronts pregnant women with hard reproductive choices. This paper offers a theoretically innovative and ethnographically sensitive exploration of the social processes through which 20 HIV positive women living in Northern Vietnam decide whether to continue or terminate their pregnancies. Arguing that human agency must be seen as an outcome of intersubjective engagements in shared social worlds, this paper explores how these women came to the decisions that they had to make and shows that women's choices were configured through everyday social relations, shaped through intimate engagements with husbands, parents, siblings, and in-laws. Based on the findings, it is recommended that pregnancy counseling is offered not only to the woman herself, but also, if she desires, involves members of her extended family.