Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Motherhood, migration, and marginality: an ethnographic exploration of experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period of members of the South African diaspora living in the United Kingdom
Thesis (PhD) University of Pretoria, 2026
Saved in:
| Other Authors: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Pretoria
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1869484060182577152 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Pieterse, Jimmy |
| author_browse | Pieterse, Jimmy |
| author_facet | Pieterse, Jimmy |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2024 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Thesis (PhD) University of Pretoria, 2026 |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/108406 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-07-01T04:08:53.127Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/108406 Motherhood, migration, and marginality: an ethnographic exploration of experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period of members of the South African diaspora living in the United Kingdom Pieterse, Jimmy u10104560@tuks.co.za Hodes, Rebecca Lowe, Giselle Bronwyn UCTD Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Motherhood Migration Autoethnography Thesis (PhD) University of Pretoria, 2026 This thesis draws on ethnographic fieldwork that aimed to establish an understanding of the pre and postnatal experiences of South Africans who give birth in the United Kingdom (UK). It examines the nuances and complexities of this vulnerable period, as well as the intercultural ambiguities that may arise from navigating the contrasting social, cultural, and maternal expectations between South Africa and the UK in birthing and raising young children. Triangulating data gathered by way of autoethnography, interviews, and participant observation, it investigates how the articulation of migrant mother experiences manifests in daily life. Unpacking how women respond to these experiences according to their own understandings of being South Africans living in the UK, and how those understandings, in turn, affect their overall maternal experience/s. This research centres migrant mothers as “sites of knowledge and cultural production, engendering identity and belonging as they move through unfamiliar and transitory spaces”(Lombard 2022: 1). Highlighting the value of women’s narratives regarding the quotidian rhythm of life, it follows others in motherhood studies (Lombard 2022; Oliveira 2018; Chadwick 2018) who incorporate the interdisciplinary crossroads of feminist, literary, decolonial, anthropological, (im)migration, diaspora, digital and cultural studies. Utilising life writing, biography, and (auto)ethnography, it explores personal accounts of South African migrant motherhood to examine the ways in which individuals “reconfigure their identities and fluid situations into lived experience” (Lombard 2022: 2). Anthropology, Archaeology and Development Studies PhD (Anthropology) Unrestricted Faculty of Humanities None 2026-02-18T13:00:37Z 2026-02-18T13:00:37Z 2026-05-22 2025-12-30 Thesis * May 2026 (M2026) http://hdl.handle.net/2263/108406 NA en © 2024 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | UCTD Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Motherhood Migration Autoethnography Motherhood, migration, and marginality: an ethnographic exploration of experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period of members of the South African diaspora living in the United Kingdom |
| title | Motherhood, migration, and marginality: an ethnographic exploration of experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period of members of the South African diaspora living in the United Kingdom |
| title_full | Motherhood, migration, and marginality: an ethnographic exploration of experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period of members of the South African diaspora living in the United Kingdom |
| title_fullStr | Motherhood, migration, and marginality: an ethnographic exploration of experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period of members of the South African diaspora living in the United Kingdom |
| title_full_unstemmed | Motherhood, migration, and marginality: an ethnographic exploration of experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period of members of the South African diaspora living in the United Kingdom |
| title_short | Motherhood, migration, and marginality: an ethnographic exploration of experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period of members of the South African diaspora living in the United Kingdom |
| title_sort | motherhood migration and marginality an ethnographic exploration of experiences of pregnancy birth and the postnatal period of members of the south african diaspora living in the united kingdom |
| topic | UCTD Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Motherhood Migration Autoethnography |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/108406 |