Digital actualizations of gender and embodiment: Microanalysis of online pregnancy discourse

• Pregnant women's online communications were analyzed using discourse analysis.
• Analysis focused on the micro-details of discourse, with attention to broader socio-cultural dynamics of power and norms concerning health, fitness, and femininity.
• The interconnection was explored between the body, technology, and culture.
• Women described medicalization and objectification of their pregnant bodies.
• Issues of maternal responsibility and discipline of the body were prominent.

SynopsisThis study examines how the pregnant body is constituted using language. It is based on a detailed analysis of pregnant women's online communications taken from a social networking website. The data were analyzed using discourse analysis with the aim of identifying how (i.e., with what socio-linguistic practices) women constructed their pregnant embodiment and what social and rhetorical purposes such constructions served in situations of their production. We also attended to how participants' local descriptions were informed by broader socio-cultural dynamics of power and norms concerning health, fitness, and femininity. Implications of the analysis for future research, theorizing, and practice are discussed.