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© British Association of Social Workers

Culture Religion and Infertility: A South African Perspective

VISHANTHIE SEWPAUL1

Dr Vishanthie Sewpaul is a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Work, University of Natal in South Africa. She has published several articles, on a range of topics, that reflect the attempt to narrow the divide between micro- and macro-levels of social work practice. She has special interests in the fields of reproductive health; gender, sexuality and AIDS; and cultural diversity and social work practice.

1 Dr Vishanthie Sewpaul, Department of Social Work, University of Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa. E-mail: sewpaul{at}mtb.und.ac.za

Summary

This paper contains data pertaining to cultural views on fertility and infertility, and the use of traditional healing in infertility, from a sample of twenty-four case studies of infertile participants and from twelve religious leaders representative of the faiths of the infertile participants. This is followed by a discussion on the impact of religion on the handling of infertility. The unique differences between the Indian and African world views compared with those of Coloureds and Whites2 are evident. However, the impact of religion on the handling of infertility reflects similarities across different religious groups. Within the various themes that emerged regarding religion and infertility, the most pervasive, across all religious faiths, was that infertility was seen as punishment for wrong-doing. The individual's level of involvement with religion, their personal conception of God, and their sense of self in relation to God appeared to be important factors in influencing the impact of religion on the experience of infertility.


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