Complexities and contingencies conceptualized: towards a model of reproductive navigation

This chapter provides sociocultural evidence for a different conceptualization of reproductive health behaviour. On the basis of long-term anthropological fieldwork in the East Province of Cameroon the author analyses of the social complexities and contingencies of local fertility-related decisions is made. Two case-studies from the field will enhance an in-depth understanding of the minutiae of reproductive decision-making. Their focus on very different fertility events allows for unravelling more general patterns of what is called reproductive navigation - that is, the ways in which people give direction to their reproductive trajectories. The aim is to move away from predefined assumptions of reproductive health behaviour and to formulate a grounded theory of reproductive navigation instead. The chapter draws upon the theoretical work on social navigation by Henrik Vigh. It questions many of the implicit assumptions about reproductive behaviour informing current international reproductive health programmes a.