ABSTRACT
The negative discourse that focuses on motherhood as a social mandate and a compromise of a woman’s independence, where the carrying and birthing of children inevitably brings with it the responsibility for all aspects for their upbringing, and the positive discourse which argues that motherhood minus patriarchy has the potential to bond women to their children and to each other, and release a liberating knowledge of the self. The transition to motherhood is traditionally conceptualised as the period after giving birth and this is reinforced by literature that considers the impact of motherhood on women’s roles, identities and social relations, including those with partners, the wider family and friends, and through employment. Pregnancy has been represented as a potential crisis state, involving shifts in identity and the move from non-motherhood to motherhood. Pregnant women renegotiate their identities within discourses that privilege mothering and deny women identities and selfhood outside motherhood.
