Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the experiences of women within contemporary maternity care and to understand their situation with particular reference to choice and control. It provides an overview and critical guide to current maternity policy and contemporary political rhetoric, with a particular emphasis on the concepts of choice and control. The book also provides an overview of the competing discourses of maternity care, which both women and maternity care providers are subjected to. It presents and briefly reviews some of the literature, theories and debates surrounding mothering and motherhood, and proposes a type of mothering that begins much earlier than the birth of the baby. The book presents and analyses the experiences of women who were interviewed across their maternity experience.