Maternities Gender Bodies and Spaces

Topics covered include women 'coming out' as pregnant at work, changing fashion for pregnant women, a woman who wanted to be filmed giving birth for a pornographic film, being disabled and pregnant, the politics of home versus hospital birth, breastfeeding practices that sit outside the norm, women who are constructed as 'bad' mothers, and 'e-mums' (mothers who go on-line). The book concludes that there is no pre-constituted, essential maternal body and instead mothering can be attached to numerous different bodies (including men's bodies) in different times and spaces. People need to be able to mother - to offer care to children - in a variety of different ways. The distinctions between mothers, fathers, and people who are 'childless' are not rigid. All persons can (but not all want to or should have to) participate in mothering.Longhurst, Robyn is the author of 'Maternities Gender Bodies and Spaces' with ISBN 9780415360463 and ISBN 0415360463.