ABSTRACT
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203151631/f83e39f2-fb3e-4f6b-8067-30bae33d638e/content/icon_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>A women’s capacity to grow a child inside her body is generally regarded as a spontaneous manifestation of her body. It is considered not only as a biological process, but also a natural one. The purpose of this article is to take into consideration the social organisation of reproduction. The subjective experience of motherhood and mothering is one where not only the social relations between the sexes dominate, but also the family as an institution, constantly intrudes, manipulates, reorganises and redirects the experience to suit the specific purposes of a given family. By a series of pressures — social and psychological — control is established over procreation. 1 The field-study for this article was planned with the purposes of eliciting information from women of their personal experiences of motherhood — what it really meant to them — and the actual conditions of becoming a mother and mothering in every day life. The idea was to understand if the actual experience of motherhood in our society, particularly within the context of the family, had anything at all to do with romantic notions normally attached to motherhood and mothering. The focus on different voices that speak of different experiences is to lay bare the complexity of the processes of control.
