FROM MUTUAL PRETENSE AWARENESS TO OPEN AWARENESS - SINGLE PREGNANT WOMENS PUBLIC ENCOUNTERS IN AN IRISH CONTEXT

Based on qualitative interviews with 51 single pregnant women, this ar ticle explores how participants negotiated encounters in public in an Irish context. It is argued that tensions in some encounters that wome n experienced exhibited features of the phenomenon defined as mutual p retense awareness,first identified by Glaser and Strauss in their work on dying. As in Glaser and Strauss's work, mutual pretense awareness often gave way to open awareness, particularly toward the end of the g estation period when the state of pregnancy became highly visible. The shift from mutual pretense awareness to open awareness had implicatio ns for women's mental health status insofar as openness about the preg nancy served to moderate stress levels associated with some public int eractions. Goffman's conceptualization of stigma mediates the analysis , where the management of information and tension is significant in ne gotiating encounters.