A discursive examination of how pregnant women navigate and account for their position on physical activity

Background: While intrapersonal factors influence pregnant women’s uptake and continuation of physical activity (e.g., sickness, fatigue), research increasingly cites interpersonal factors as important. In opting for the active pregnancy for example, pregnant women may negotiate their physical activity relationship and identity amongst interpersonal factors. Examining the discursive positions pregnant women assume relative to the dominant discourses derived from their social environment, indicates how pregnant women navigate their physical activity relationship and identities relative to interpersonal factors.

Methods: Twelve participants were recruited. Qualitative data were collected via individual semi-structured interviews. A pluralist discourse analysis approach, comprising discursive psychology and Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA), was applied. Combined approaches facilitated micro and macro subject-positions negotiated relative to antenatal physical activity relationship and identity.

Findings: Eight positions were discursively navigated to account for four clustered stances on physical activity ([1] Rebellious, Advocate therefore Empowered; [2] Compromised but Contented; [3] Tentative and Conflicted; [4] Vulnerable, Restricted, but Fortunate). These positions were navigated through specific discourses, revealing competing discursive constructions of identity contingent on mutable physical activity relationships and societal discourses defining maternal behaviour. Positions and discourses were plotted along an antenatal physical activity continuum, depicting a framework of discursive position management utilised by pregnant women when accounting for physical activity.

Discussion: This framework may guide practitioners to recognise varying discourses deployed by pregnant women when navigating their position on physical activity. Understanding discursive position management facilitates open discussions on antenatal physical activity, a topic which some research suggests is not routinely forthcoming during antenatal consultations.