Listen to your body A qualitative text analysis of internet discussions related to pregnancy health and pelvic girdle pain in pregnancy

Objective: To explore popular perspectives on pelvic girdle pain (PGP) in pregnancy through an analysis of women's discussions on the internet, and to investigate how these discussions compare with the prevailing official discourses on PGP and pregnancy health. Methods: A qualitative text analysis of women's contributions to a commercial online web-based discussion forum related to PGP in Norway. Results: The website works as a meeting point between pregnant women seeking advice on how to interpret and handle pregnancy-related pain, and women with experience of PGP. The worries expressed are met with strong messages of precautions and self-care, and in general PGP is perceived as an unpredictable and potentially disabling condition. Conclusion: A popular discourse on PGP as an unpredictable condition emerges in the discussions, and challenges the official discourse on PGP as a common complaint. The unpredictable condition discourse may work to justify pregnant women's perceived need for rest and care, and may be interpreted as an expression of a lack of acknowledgement of pregnancy as a state of being that requires special care in contemporary Norwegian society. Practice implications: This popular discourse reflects a gap between the policy of pregnancy as a normal condition, and women's experiences that should be taken seriously in policy-making and medical practice. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.