| The focus of this research is on the conceptualizations of gestational diabetes among three stakeholder groups in Edmonton: Asian women living with the condition, the biomedical clinicians who assist them, and a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The locus of this study was a diabetes outpatient clinic that represented the contact zone for the explanatory models of this condition between the expert groups. Qualitative analysis of seven interviews demonstrates that the conceptualization of any health issue is a complex process that has implications for the delivery of health care in a culturally diverse community. Within the framework of understanding gestational diabetes as socially experienced, one of the most significant findings of this research is that the major 'symptom' of diabetes as experienced by the women who lived with the condition was the auto-surveillance and modification of behaviour required of them by the Clinic in order to manage their condition. |
