[Ibadan Journal of Sociology, June, 2019, 9 ]
[© 2014-2019 Ibadan Journal of Sociology]7the doctor had cut her uterus, possibly before her request. She administered
local herbs for various illnesses because of her financial challenges: she could
only support herself with what she earned from plaiting hair, decorating at
events, and styling brides. “I cry deeply in my heart wondering whether I
produced these children on my own,” she said.
Reflections on Virtual Cases
Virtual cases #1 and #2 present a familiar terrain for discourse and analysis in
family procreation context. In this sense, procreation within families is seen as
an art of God, which exempts spouses from being responsible for family size.
Thus, they may not be able to ascertain when the family is complete and no
more addition of members is sustainable. In a more tenable explanation, family
sizes are controlled by sexual urges and menopause. The personal effects of the
two mothers in the cases above were in poor households, although their
husbands supported the status, which was at least evidenced in the cases. In
demographic and economic interpretations, Malthus foresaw multifaceted
doom and trap for this kind of population growth. This is nature-driven
population growth and it shall be called ‘pre-classic fecundity family’ in
contemporary time.
However, virtual case #3 represents a classic fecundity kind of
population growth in the contemporary world characterised by interactions
between rapid fecundity and experts’ corrective interference. Also, the
acceptance of that ‘hyper-ovulation’ notion (Natural cycles, 2018) precluded
her gynaecologist from interfering in her biological makeup. Apart from that,
the woman grew within a circle of multidimensional abuse. For example, she
was married at 12 years without a proper understanding of her consent to
marriage, an event in false self-consciousness. Similarly, her husband, 28 years
older, reportedly battered her many times. Reasonably, why must she suffer
such frequent violation? In a study, Azeez (2016) maintained that such abusive
cases are not usually reported but left for God’s intervention. This could
explain the repeated violation of women by the same culprit. Such experience
will likely distort the concept of motherhood. For Reddy, Mistry and Jacobs
(2016), relational support remains crucial in the adoption of motherhood and
mother-foetus survival among adolescents with rapid, repeated births. The
woman survived in the midst of confusion, which included all her rhetoric
about her real identity, economy, and social realities cum personal
interpretation of life.
Social forces and vices
In Confusion and personification in Yoruba thought and practice by Salami
and Guyer (2015), participants attributed confusion to Satan (Eshu). According