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2 - Anticipating Motherhood

The Antenatal Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2023

Tina Miller
Affiliation:
Oxford Brookes University
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Summary

In this chapter, women’s expectations and plans for motherhood are followed, using qualitative, longitudinal interview data collected in the UK between 2017 and 2019. Their narrations are compared to key experiences from the original motherhood study conducted 21 years earlier. In both motherhood studies, familiarity with normative constructions of ‘good’ motherhood is apparent well before pregnancy. But in the contemporary study, these are now also informed by limitless digital resources, such as social media platforms, forums and applications (apps). The average age for first-time motherhood in the UK has increased so that women have longer established work biographies and career histories before experiencing maternal subjectivity. In this antenatal period, the women draw upon strands of different discourse to narrate pregnancy and their preparations for motherhood, including managing a pregnant body, plans for birth and a return to the workplace. Generational changes are also invoked, alongside hopes that grandparents will help fill anticipated childcare gaps, easing the financial burden of working parenthood. The discourse of ‘balance’ and ‘balancing work and family life’ is used to describe plans for managing working motherhood/parenthood, which either seem possible from this pre-baby vantage point or, for some, are already provoking a sense of anxiety.

Type
Chapter
Information
Motherhood
Contemporary Transitions and Generational Change
, pp. 26 - 54
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Anticipating Motherhood
  • Tina Miller, Oxford Brookes University
  • Book: Motherhood
  • Online publication: 17 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009413367.003
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Anticipating Motherhood
  • Tina Miller, Oxford Brookes University
  • Book: Motherhood
  • Online publication: 17 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009413367.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Anticipating Motherhood
  • Tina Miller, Oxford Brookes University
  • Book: Motherhood
  • Online publication: 17 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009413367.003
Available formats
×