It is expected of the woman that she will be pregnant within a certain period.
The socio-cultural roots of stigmatisation as a result of infertility in Nigeria. As earlier mentioned, certain socio- cultural beliefs fuel social stigmatisation. According to Dimka & Dein (2013), among the Amakiri in Delta state, barren women are not considered to have attained full womanhood, hence they are banned from certain associations. Because the kinship system is practised in most cultures in Nigeria, where most families see wives as outsiders not as relatives, burial might be problematic if they die childless.This system thrives on birth relations and not on marriage ties. In other words, childbearing is significantly important and makes the woman relevant, hence the pressure to birth a child, even when its beyond their control, is placed on the couple with the woman being directly stigmatised by society and the in-laws (Dimka & Dein, 2013) Another popular practice is that the bride- to-be is expected to be pregnant before marriage, especially after making their intention to marry known to the family . Since the man will be paying bride price, his family wants to be sure that the woman can produce children by enforcing this culture. Hence, without this physical evidence, the marriage may not take place no matter the decision of the man and woman involved.
Furthermore, in a patriarchal society such as Nigeria, women are blamed for infertility. This puts a lot of pressure on the woman, even though the husband might be the one who is infertile. Many a- time the man will not go for a medical checkup while trying to battle infertility in his home, believing that it is the sole responsibility of the woman to fall pregnant (although this belief is changing in more recent years). Also, he might be afraid of being stigmatised as a lazy man who cannot impregnate his wife which is a big deal for the man too. In this type of community, women that were abandoned because of infertility, might go through the same cycle till old age and suffer much depression, then during old age they are called names such as witch or mad woman. This practice is common among the Yoruba ethnic group (Oyesola, 2022). Fadeke (not her real name) was married in 2010, and for almost four years she did not fall pregnant. During those years, she was running from pillar to post for help to get pregnant but nothing worked, until she met her mentor who asked if she had been to the hospital for a checkup, Fadeke’s answer was affirmative. She was also asked if her husband had been to the hospital as well, but she said no. She was advised to ask her husband to go for a checkup too, which she did. After a long conversation with her husband, he agreed to go to the hospital, and after all was said and done, it was discovered that the husband was infertile and fortunately, the cause of his infertility was curable. He was treated and Fadeke had the fourth naming ceremony recently. However, before the problem of infertility was traced to the husband, Fadeke had suffered at the hands of her in-laws and religious leaders which almost
In a patriarchal society such as Nigeria,women are blamed for infertility.
November 2023 | Collective Action Magazine
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