Parental caringscapes – the analyses of mothering practices in local community contexts

During the last two decades of Family Sociology there is a growing interest toward understanding the complex phenomenon of parental experience. According to the changing perspective of the field, parental experience is embracing three different but interrelated aspects: the parenthood as a social institution, practices and agency of parenting and the intimate relationship between a particular child and her/his parent. This approach reflects to the changing social interpretations of parenthood and the growing emphasize on the “good parenting” in lay and professional discourses, and diversification of institutional and informal contexts of parental care. As a part of this process the status that parents occupy in different social fields shows diversity as well, and sometimes parents experience distance between the value of their parental status in varying contexts. Becoming a new mother can lead to central position in the family, while on the societal level it may goes together with a kind of isolation and the feeling of periphery. This gap has an effect on evaluation of parental competencies, autonomy and parental interpretations of care. In our study implementing a human geographic approach we suggest that parental care and the relating experiences cannot be separated from the wider and narrower space, place and time where the actual caring work is occurring.

An untold truth about pregnancy and motherhood: A self-analysis through photography

The author recounts that giving birth to her first child was a life-changing experience that she commemorated through photography. The author’s art process involves analysing her own experiences and therefore she also approached her pregnancy through an artistic lens. In this article, the author describes the art-based process used to increase self-knowledge and self-exploration of the changes occurring in life during and after pregnancy. This self-analysis contributed to the development and collection of ideas that formed the author’s identity as a new mother. Motherhood incorporates both joyous and difficult experiences, and photography allowed the author to place those experiences side by side, integrating them into a coherent story. The project can potentially benefit other new mothers experiencing the transition into motherhood – a transition often shrouded in mystery and unhelpfully laden with unrealistic expectations, as the author discovered and is demonstrated in photographs.

Language Ideologies, Chinese Identities and Imagined Futures

Since independence in 1965, the Singapore government has established a strongly mandated education policy with an English-first and official mother tongue Mandarin-second bilingualism. A majority of local-born Chinese have inclined toward a Western rather than Chinese identity, with some scholars regarding English as Singapore’s “new mother tongue.” Other research has found a more local identity built on Singlish, a localized form of English which adopts expressions from the ethnic mother tongues. However, a re-emergent China and new waves of mainland migrants over the past two decades seem to have strengthened Chinese language ideologies in the nation’s linguistic space. This article revisits the intriguing relationships between language and identity through a case study of Chineseness among young ethnic Chinese Singaporeans. Guided by a theory of identity and investment and founded on survey data, it investigates the Chinese language ideologies of university students and their agency in choosing for themselves a Chinese imagined identity and community. Our survey found that ethnic Chinese Singaporean university students still possess a strong affinity for Mandarin and a desire to develop this aspect of their identity, in the context of Singapore’s multiracial national identity. There exists a high propensity for imagined futures in Chineseness, with a majority of survey respondents who claimed English-speaking and bilingual identities also expressing the desire to become more bilingual and more Mandarin-speaking. This paper also deciphers the external and internal factors contributing to this development and suggests some areas of future research.

Feature Article—Continuing Education Module—Reimagining Postpartum Support

This article introduces the author's emerging new paradigm (“perinatal participation”) that re-imagines postpartum support by helping expectant parents have more peace of mind, confidence, self-compassion, and emotional wellbeing over the course of their perinatal journeys, with special focus on feeling more prepared for all that happens after baby arrives. The author's work rests on the shoulders of her 1992 book, Mothering the New Mother: Women's Feelings and Needs After Childbirth. Perceiving a new urgent need to support expectant parents three decades later (the need to alleviate the high stress levels in expectant parents she was talking to) the author explored filtering the expectant and new parent's experience through what she calls a “peace-of-mind lens.”

On Childbirth Rituals in Modern Dagestani Cities: Islam, Traditions, Innovations

The article explores some aspects of modern childbirth rituals and practices among the city dwellers of Dagestan, focusing on their syncretic nature and the mixture of traditional and new customs. Proper Islamic religious ceremonies occupy a significant place in the childbirth rituals, among them being mawlid, on the occasion of the birth, name-giving of a new-born, circumcision, visiting ziyarats, etc. Traditional ceremonies include the custom of treating a new mother with flour porridge, putting a child in a traditional cradle, the first hair-cut ceremony, the loss of the first tooth, the first steps of the child, etc. Some of the popular rites were invented in the Soviet and post-Soviet times.

Exploring a volunteer community residential care facility for new mothers

Background:All women deserve a “dwelling space” during their postnatal period after the birth of their infant. This “space” provides her an opportunity to be cared for, to be replenished, to rest and to reflect on herself being a new mother before returning home. We explored a volunteer community residential service set up to help new mothers to document their experiences and determine if the outcomes matched their expectations. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were offered to all women who had utilised this service since its inception. The questionnaire explored their motivations to seek such as service and to learn of their experiences. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and a thematic analysis employed. Results: Over the last 8 years, 12 women, 4 twice, availed themselves of this service, two being first-time mothers. Reasons given by mothers for utilising this service included recovery from the trauma of childbirth both past and present, physical and emotional, and delaying assuming responsibilities at home. All the women had welcomed the “dwelling space”, being mothered, feeling replenished and having time to meaningfully relate to their newborn infant.The ambience of the accommodation and the care they received were above their expectations. All would recommend other new mothers to avail themselves of this service