ABSTRACT
Becoming a first-time mother is not only a biological process, but also a social transformation by “playing a socially defined, publicly visible role” of the mother identity. While the journey of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood is not easy for any women, it brings additional pressure to international graduate student mothers, who may also need to cope with the dramatic change of culture, tradition, medical system, and institutional knowledge in their second language, and struggle to balance the dual and often conflicting roles of being an international student and a first-time mother, all of which require tremendous emotional and time commitments. In addition, the exploration of international graduate student mothers' stories and the insights conveyed by the poems serve as a means of speaking to the larger world, raising questions to the marginalized and often-overlooked discourses that international graduate student mothers must face, such as inheriting and fracturing of cultural origins, and gender discrimination.
