Authors: Doris Ekua Yalley, Ebenezer Yalley
Abstract: Unintended childlessness in sub-Saharan Africa has a burden that is much more than a biomedical one. The couple who are unable to conceive is faced with a social, spiritual and existential crisis, rather than just a medical one, in pronatalist cultures where children are not just a medical condition but are a sign of God’s blessing. The epidemiology and psychosocial impact of infertility in Africa is well known, but little is known about how infertile couples deal with it, or how they are able to remain resilient with the support of African Christian spirituality. The aim of this paper is to present a descriptive phenomenological study of the experience of living with the absence of children in Christian marriages in Ghana. With Colaizzi’s method with the researcher’s theological presuppositions bracketed, it outlines the difficulties these couples encounter in their families, churches and communities; their spiritual coping mechanisms; and how African Christian spirituality helps them survive and thrive. Transcended by Pargament’s theory of religious coping and the literature on spiritual and family resilience, the study claims that the church is a sanctuary and a place of stigma in Ghana, and that couples learn to be resilient through prayer, Scripture, worship, community, and a new understanding of fruitfulness, particularly when the church emphasizes deliverance. The paper argues that pastoral caregivers and counsellors need a theology of childlessness that moves beyond a liturgy of fruitfulness toward accompaniment, lament, and the nurture of resilience. Implications for pastoral care, counselling practice, and African theological education are discussed.
Keywords:unintended childlessness; infertility; African Christian spirituality; religious coping; resilience; pastoral care; descriptive phenomenology; Ghana