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Conceiving Motherhood

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Reproductive Health and Maternal Sacrifice

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Abstract

As the previous chapter has shown, concerns about who is and who is not suitable for motherhood structure approaches to fertility regulation, and at the centre of these ideas is the notion that ‘good mothers’ should always put (potential) children first. These views about acceptable and unacceptable motherhood also have a strong influence over some women’s journeys towards motherhood, particularly if they encounter problems conceiving. This chapter will look at how ideas about motherhood as a ‘natural’ role for women affect conception issues. It will begin by building on the issues raised in Chap. 2 about the association between womanhood and motherhood and how this can lead to a division among women on the basis of motherhood/non-motherhood, a division which may overlook the complexity of fertility issues in women’s lives. These ideas have a strong influence on women’s experiences of infertility and the idea of the biological clock; fertility is thus positioned as an embodied finite resource that women should not ignore. The chapter will then examine the ways in which motherhood as a natural role and ideas about fitness to parent are embedded in medicalized infertility treatments. This will include a consideration of gamete transactions and understandings of surrogacy that indicate how these are also built around notions of maternal sacrifice, albeit in different ways to the ‘intended’ parents. Finally, the issue of reproductive loss will be explored, in particular in relation to how motherhood without children further adds to our understanding of broader conceptions of motherhood.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Languages and Social Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK

    Pam Lowe

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  1. Pam Lowe
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Lowe, P. (2016). Conceiving Motherhood. In: Reproductive Health and Maternal Sacrifice. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47293-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47293-9_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-47292-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47293-9

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