ABSTRACT
I was asked to contribute to the Maternal Seminars at the Philadelphia Association in the belief that people might be interested in the viewpoint of someone who has chosen not to have children. I have been careful to choose a title and theme that would not oend women who are in a completely dierent category to myself, those women who do not have children, but want them. I wanted a title that would not only reect my situation which involves the life decision not to be a mother, but also alludes to having a rejecting mother and, possibly, one which suggests rejecting my own mother.
