ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the circumstances of women's transition into motherhood, based on social norms and cultural expectations. It proposes that some women find the transition difficult because of the value and status attached to earning an income. Post-traumatic stress syndrome following childbirth has now been recognised. The chapter also proposes that mothers are integral to the continuing functioning of society and that therefore society has a responsibility to support the mothering role. G. W Brown and T. Harris identified four vulnerability factors that predispose women to the onset of unhappiness: lack of a confiding relationship with their partner; presence at home of three or more children under the age of 14 years; loss of their own mother before the age of 11 years; and absence of outside employment. Women are expected to manage not only their families, but also their careers and domestic chores.
