‘I’m Mum and Dad in One, Basically’: Doing and Displaying ‘Good Lone Motherhood’

Popular discourse continues to equate ‘good’ motherhood with middle class, heterosexual coupledom and lone motherhood with dysfunctionality, despite ever-increasing diversity in family life. Drawing on interviews with lone mothers in two locations in the north of England, this article introduces the concept of ‘good lone motherhood’ to capture a process whereby women internalise nuclear family ideology while simultaneously resisting stigma and taking pride in their achievements in fulfilling practical and emotional demands of lone parenting. Application of a family practices framework is expanded through insights into what ‘doing’ good lone motherhood entails in everyday life and how it is ‘displayed’ to different audiences. Taking a comparative approach involving women in areas with contrasting socio-economic profiles highlights the contextual nature of display. Analysis of agential reflexivity and structural constraints demonstrates ways in which gender and class disadvantages can undermine capacity to ‘successfully’ convey a positive maternal identity.

Transition of Roles Change of Motherhood in Women

Being a mother is an extraordinary experience for women. The transition to changing the role of being a mother is a process that a mother must go through in achieving her maternal identity. The purpose of this paper is to determine the transition from changing the role of being a mother to women. This type of writing is a narrative literature review, conducted in June-November 2020. Data was collected through the PubMed digital library, Science Direct and Google Scholar using inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data analysis was done qualitatively. The analysis was carried out on 19 research articles. The results of the paper show three main themes, namely motherhood, transition to motherhood in working and unemployed mothers, and the role of midwives in supporting the role transition process. The transition process of changing the role of motherhood to both working and non-working mothers, namely experiencing feelings of inadequacy, feeling alone, losing, then being able to realize, make adjustments and perform these roles. Midwives must provide care according to client needs

Women Facing Psychological Abuse: How Do They Respond to Maternal Identity Humiliation and Body Shaming?

This research analyzes the decisions made by women facing simulated situations of psychological abuse. Seventy-three women (36.9 ± 13.6 years) who had been victims of domestic violence participated. The analysis was based on their coping strategies, early maladaptive schemes, and their decisions in response to vignettes describing the following domestic violence situations: humiliation to women’s maternal identity with children as witnesses and body shaming. We used Student’s t and Mann–Whitney tests to compare the results between groups. The participants presented some coping strategies (social support seeking, wishful thinking, and professional support seeking) and several early maladaptive schemes (emotional deprivation, defectiveness/shame, social isolation/alienation, failure to achieve, attachment, and subjugation) associated with their reactions facing a situation of humiliation with children as witnesses. When the humiliation was against the body image, their reactions were associated with some coping strategies (wishful thinking, professional support seeking, autonomy, negative auto-focus coping, and positive reappraisal) and one maladaptive scheme (defectiveness/shame). Women who reacted avoidantly showed higher social and professional support seeking but experienced higher indicators of discomfort and deterioration of self-esteem than those who opted for assertive decisions. The presence of children as witnesses seems to be a factor of stress in the configuration of coping strategies and maladaptive schemes in female victims of domestic violence. The evolution of early maladaptive schemes and coping strategies requires observation to avoid the risk of isolation and permanence in victimizing relationships.

Changes in Importance of Motherhood Following Pregnancy Loss

Pregnancy loss (i.e., miscarriage, stillbirth) is a relatively common and often traumatic experience. Although prior research has examined mental health consequences of pregnancy loss, to our knowledge, none have examined how the experience of pregnancy loss affects how women perceive or value the importance of motherhood. Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers, we applied change-score regression analysis to examine how a pregnancy loss that occurred between survey waves was associated with a change in importance of motherhood scores, controlling for sociodemographic and pregnancy-specific characteristics. We found that women who experienced a pregnancy loss reported an increase in importance of motherhood compared to women without a pregnancy loss. The findings suggest that an increase in the importance of motherhood following a pregnancy loss could be a grief response. Health care professionals should consider validating maternal identity following a pregnancy loss, as women highly associate with this role.

Multimedia improves knowledge and choice of contraception among pregnant women

The quantitative research employed quasi-experimental research with one pretest-posttest group was done to examine the knowledge of pregnant women about family planning and the choosing of contraception. The sample of this study was 41 pregnant women recruited by incidental sampling techniques. Questionnaires for pregnant women provide maternal identity, questions for knowledge about family planning, and the choice of contraception chosen. Data analysis used Wilcoxon test. Multimedia improves the knowledge and choice of contraception among pregnant women.