Despite the low uptake of biomedical contraception in Niger, women share with one another practical knowledge of a variety of other techniques. The variety of these natural, traditional, and magico-religious methods gives evidence of women’s sometimes hidden desire to regulate their fertility. For some, economic concerns contribute to their pursuit of such techniques, while for others birth spacing to protect the existing children is their concern. Closely spaced births, giving evidence to unconstrained marital sexuality, can provoke shame and ridicule. Pregnancy while nursing is particularly shameful, contributing to a pattern of early weaning. Infant mortality is associated in popular thinking with close pregnancies. Contraceptive charms, lactational amenorrhea, postpartum abstinence, withdrawal, the calendar method, and post-coital baths are among the tools women and sometimes their partners rely upon to regulate their pregnancies. Some women call upon unregulated itinerant street pharmacies for discreet access to contraceptive pills. Popular knowledge of abortifacient substances may be drawn upon to eliminate an undesired pregnancy.

Through the life stories of six women, this chapter identifies the different circumstances in which a woman is considered infertile in Niamey, Niger. Some women have had repeated miscarriages or never experienced a pregnancy in their lifetimes and may be experiencing sterility. In other cases, women have had a child, but infant mortality renders them childless and infertile in the eyes of society. In a third set of circumstances, women have given birth and raised a child, but because of their families’ and society’s exhortation to produce many offspring, they are seen as lacking and thus infertile. While their stories are distinct, common themes emerge in interviews with women facing sterility, the loss of children, and subfertility. Women who encounter fertility constraints—whether they have or have not been able to become pregnant—question their own identity and womanhood. Some women without children find fulfillment outside the maternal framework, through fostering, religious devotion, and politics; but these cases are the exception rather than the rule.

Women who experience infertility feel a wide range of emotions such as affection, anxiety, guilt, joy, shame, and loneliness. This chapter undertakes an anthropological analysis of affective life or sensibilité to better understand the experiences of infertile women in Niger. In this way, the chapter psychologizes anthropology and anthropologizes psychology. Through interviews conducted in Niamey, it is found that when a couple is unable to produce a child, the wife is alienated by her husband and husband’s family, which brings about overwhelming feelings of loneliness. Some interviewees report having to hear insults on a regular basis from their relatives within their own home, making them question their own self-worth. Women stigmatized for being childless feel a deep sense of shame and guilt for not being able to fulfill their social duty. At the same time, they can feel hopeful for a miracle. The extensive marginalization of women without children and the constant gaze of and judgment by others are internalized, incurring psychological distress that deserves greater attention.

This chapter discusses popular understandings of the infertile body and the social representations that surround it in the city of Niamey in Niger. Women are held responsible for a couple’s infertility, while men’s sterility is shielded from view. Fertility is positively associated with the female body and with agricultural abundance. Infertility is associated with death. A sterile woman is the object of both sympathy and condemnation. The stigma of infertility invites accusations of witchcraft, masculinity, and selfishness. The marriage contract implies that in exchange for material support from the husband’s family, in particular food, the wife must provide the family with children. Women who fail to produce children are assumed to have transgressed social norms in some manner. The burden of responsibility for infertility falls heavily upon women as wives.

This chapter examines the quality of care for women seeking reproductive health services at health clinics in Niamey, Niger. Whether it is to pursue treatment for infertility, give birth, or obtain contraception, issues ranging from miscommunication to medical violence arise that are rooted in the asymmetrical power relationship between providers and clients. Crucial decisions regarding a woman’s body are often made without her prior consent under the guise of an emergency. Surgical procedures such as tuboplasties and hysterectomies are sometimes carried out without the patient’s agreement or understanding. Despite widespread rumors about their harmful effects, some women go to clinics to obtain contraception. But once there, women are met with long waiting times and inconsiderate staff. Interviewees report being treated rudely by nurses and midwives if they are not their friends or of equal or higher social status. Women say they feel tense, dehumanized, intimidated, and disrespected in their interactions with health professionals. Health clinic staff talk about particular women—notably, those with less formal education and income—as being “bad patients.” While medical facilities ought to provide the best fertility management options for women, systemic problems within those spaces make it hard for women to use them.