BEING A MOTHER TODAY: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO MOTHERHOOD FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Objective:

To analyse the discourse of motherhood from a gender perspective; to apply a multidisciplinary approach to the theoretical considerations underpinning obstetric care today. To review historical and practical knowledge of childbirth and to analyse its impact on women-mothers in the 21^st century.

Method

We carried out a historical analysis and review of various documentary sources - social sciences and humanities databases, specialist and non-specialist scientific literature, websites, blogs - to identify the socio-cultural setting of the experience of motherhood in our society.

The study comprised interviews and the provision of multidisciplinary care (psychoanalysis, psychology, midwifery, anthropology) to pregnant women-mothers and future parents.

Results:

In addition to the physiological aspects of pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum, there is also an important symbolic construction of motherhood.

The naturalistic discourse on the process of maternity care, which has become established in recent years both inside and outside the scientific community, is changing the classical concept of motherhood and highlighting new, valid forms of maternity which were inconceivable until only recently. This naturalistic discourse has become firmly established and therefore deserves special attention.

Conclusions:

So far, our conclusions (which are never definitive) suggest that motherhood is a dynamic practice in which mothers find a context and a history, and so it cannot be understood as a natural, timeless and universal fact. We reaffirm the need to think – and to help others to think – about "mothering" in a way that goes far beyond its merely biological aspect.