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PSYCHOSOCIAL IMPACT ON INFERTILE COUPLE
And GOD bless them, and GOD said unto them be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth and subdivide it.
—Holy Bible: Genesis 1:28 (1)
Allah made man and women for each other to live together and
multiply. Human sexual life has a predictable outcome that they
live together had physical relationship which goes after by
pregnancy and the result is the healthy baby. Having a baby is the
most important part in a couple’s life and it is also seen as
necessary step to reach maturity and personal development and also
the socially expected role of human being.
Our society places great emphasis on fertility. Child bearing is
important aspect of marriage. If a women unable to conceive it
causes marriage impairment. Worldwide millions of men and women are
confronted with infertility. Infertility is when a couple has a
regular marital relationship with unprotected sex for at least one
year but fail to conceive during this period. There are two types
of infertility primary and secondary.
Primary infertility refers to couples who are unable to conceive
and secondary infertility occurs after one year of unprotected
intercourse in which the couple is unable to conceive after
previous pregnancy. The prevalence of infertility in Pakistan is
21.9%: primary infertility is 3.9 % and secondary infertility is
18.0% Neelofar Sami(2003).
Infertility can come in relation to both male and female and can
affect their life imperfectly. These people loose trust of their
partners and family members. Society also treats these people
offensively and they have no right to live as they want. Hence they
came up with many sociological and psychological issues. I have
also seen many couples which are facing this issue and end up with
many problems therefore I want to shed light on some societal
attitude and psychological issues which poorly affects person’s
life.
Every couple wants to live healthy and happy life and plan for a
child but infertile couple has less fortunate to feel this
happiness. When doctor informed that any of the couple is
infertile. It is difficult for men and women both. But women
somehow accept this harsh reality whereas men usually find it
difficult to accept it. The experience of infertility and the
resulting stress may impact a couple’s physical and social,
domestic and mental well-being such as sadness, depression, anger,
confusion and disorganization.
Many couples delay medical seeking advice because of increase
anxiety level and physical discomfort for the diagnostic
procedures, fear for final exact diagnosis, emotional stress and
the fright for the effective outcome. A women identity intimidates
due to infertility, their status and security is been lost. Society
stigmatized these women and they stay isolated. In some cases women
threatened for divorce or sent back to their parent’s home whereas
men are forced for another marriage. In Pakistan Women are 16.3%
physically abused by in-laws and 10.5% by husbands (Neelofar Sami
2003). I have also observed that many infertile women experience
emotional harassment by their marital homes in the form of excluded
from family celebrations, taunting, stigmatization, beating,
withholding of food and health care. This results in immense
psychological trauma leading to low self-esteem, security and
self-confidence in such women.
Couple not only faces these issues but they also go to traditional
healers and follow their treatment. These people are pressurized by
the family for concerning to traditional healers as their
forefathers have strongest believes on these people. I would like
to share one real case in which a 30 year old infertile lady
expressed that when her in-laws came to know that they are unable
to produce a baby, they were in the denial phase and unable to
accept this fact. However she forces her to go under medical
checkups and other traditional healer. These all made her feel
embarrassment, guilt and fear of daily visiting and exposing
herself to every next person. Furthermore the society labels her
with the term ‘baanj’ which means a women can never give birth to
baby and she is not allowed to live peace fully. Her husband is
very much supportive but still facing societal problem and become a
patient of depression. Her in-laws say her to left the house and
give divorce to their son. This is the one story but daily how many
women have to suffer from this issue. In some cases women are
threatened with another marriage or divorce and many fear
abandonment and loss of social and economic security. They could
also be victims of violence, abuse and social exclusion.
We as a society member have to be changing our mind and understand
that infertility is not a fault of a couple but it is the ordeal
from God which human being should accept it as a decision of fate.
For solving the psychosocial and emotional problem of infertile
couple, there should be appropriate information provided to the
couple regarding the causes and effects of infertility, making them
aware either of the partners could be responsible so that it is
important to investigate both the partners. The husband should be
counseled for infertility and support her wife in treatment.
Furthermore infertile couple helps each other by sharing their
concerns and feelings in order to live happy life. Human being is a
great creation of God and it is important that we give respect,
honor and right to every member of society to live with dignity
especially infertile women.
By: Razia Mehdi
Karachi. |
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