3 - Making Sense of Early Mothering Experiences

Summary

In this chapter, the women narrate experiences of birth and the early (6–8) weeks of first-time mothering/motherhood. In contrast to antenatal anticipation, the visceral, physical and embodied changes, which accompany birth and early mothering, provide new narrative vantage points. But in the earlier motherhood study, some women found it hard to voice their experiences of new motherhood at this point, only later revealing experiences they felt had run counter to idealised versions of motherhood. But in the contemporary study, the increased number of unexpectedly interventionist births (which did not go to ‘plan’), together with more readily available 24/7 digital access to other mothers, provided new modes of collective support. However, a key question arises in the contemporary study, in which first-time motherhood also occurs at an older age and where cascading intervention is experienced during labour and birth. This concerns how preparations in the antenatal period correspond to birth outcomes that are statistically more likely to include surgical intervention and emergency C-sections. A disjunction between antenatal preparation and labour and birth demands further attention, which is returned to in a later chapter.