Ourselves as Mothers

This work explores birth and motherhood. It looks at the problems facing mothers in the West about the pain of infertility, the struggles of working mothers, the myth of the “new man” and the underrating of housework, and the ways in which women try to juggle with their identities as mothers and as achievers in a man’s world. It looks closely at many aspects of motherhood, from preparing for pregnancy to the ritualization of hospital birth, from the mystique surrounding the bonds forged between mother and child to the changes expected in their behaviour when they become mothers, and describes how concepts of motherhood and the ritual surrounding it differ between cultures. Citing examples from India to Jamaica, South Africa to Communist China, it highlights the role of women in different cultures and the varying ways in which images of motherhood are socially constructed. Tha author is a social anthropologist who has researched pregnancy, birth and mothering in many different countries of the world. For several years she has been an advisor to the National Childbirth Trust, and was awarded the MBE for her services to education for childbirth. Other works by the author include “The Experience of Childbirth”, “Pregnancy and Childbirth” and “Woman’s Experience of Sex”.