Health literacy, rationality and pregnancy: decisions in the making

This article analyses a particular strategy of Australian main stream health promotion policy, that is, the encouragement of individuals to actively seek out and use health literature in order to become health literate. It analyses the definition of health literacy as understood by main stream health promoters. The paper considers the way in which main stream health promotion is constituted and limited by rational scientific, economic, middle class and managerial approaches to health. Through interviews, it explores how women consider themselves knowledgeable about health in ways that both use and disrupt the boundaries of narrow understandings of health literacy. Examples and suggestions will be made about how main stream health promotion might acknowledge the uncertainty and "every day reality" of women's lives.