Gender norms for having a baby for married women in most of the
communities are affecting the lives of childless women. Expectations from general
population towards married childless women are causing problem when they can not
fulfill. In every society people expect children as an outcome of a successful
marriage. Childlessness is seen as abnormality or weakness in many societies.
Most of the Myanmar people are Theravada Buddhists and their ways of
thinking and cultural beliefs as well as practices have close relation to religious
beliefs. Children are seen as invaluable gifts in Myanmar society. They become assets
for women living with low income. Many people want to have children to inherit their
cultural and religious heritage. Childless women in Myanmar society suffer from
gender norms, cultural beliefs, economic problems and social problems through out
their life.
This is a qualitative ethnographic was done to find out cultural beliefs and
gender norms which affects the life of childless women in contemporary Myanmar
society. This investigation was done in a suburban Buddhist community in Yangon,
Myanmar.
The study was conducted by using in depth interviews, informal group
discussion and text analysis of available literature. 9 childless women were
interviewed and clues are looked for form their husband and family members.
Informal discussion with elderly persons was done to find out community view on
childlessness. Their health seeking behaviors are asked from two midwives.
This study reveals that almost all were still reluctant to talk about their
childlessness with other people. Most of them consider themselves as fertile and tried
to find answers for their childlessness and struggle to form families without a child.
Some of them committed to medical procedures to get a child; some are resisting the
pressure from the family to have a child. They blamed disease, their spouse, their fate
for childlessness. They also blame themselves for doing mistakes and failure to their
predicted gender norms. Although some women seek out help from medical services,
they did not know modern fertility technologies like IVF and can not access to these.
In summary, all of them were suffering from expectations from their society and
families.