Impact of pregnancy on women with eating disorder symptoms: a discourse analysis

There is a significant knowledge gap concerning how women with an ongoing eating disorder (ED) perceive the impact of pregnancy on their ED symptoms. Existing research seldom addresses how the unique physiological and psychological changes during pregnancy are experienced in relation to the course and expression of an ED. With the aim of demonstrating how discursive meanings of body and experienced embodiment are mutable but carry consequences for the individual, for healthcare and for overarching societal understandings of EDs during pregnancy, this interview study examines the perceived impact of pregnancy among pregnant women experiencing ongoing ED symptoms. Based on a qualitative research approach and a poststructuralist discourse theoretical framework, influenced by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, interviews with 22 women were conducted and analysed through discourse analysis. Four main discourses of how the interviewees perceived the pregnancy emerged in the data: (1) pregnancy as an end to the ED, (2) pregnancy as a loss of control, (3) pregnancy as a parenthesis in the ED and (4) pregnancy as a safe space for the ED. This study provides increased understanding of the pregnant women's perspectives, and the importance of reaching out to women with ED symptoms. The role of EDs during pregnancy needs to be further explored to be able to develop relevant interventions.