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Motherhood
Kinds of Motherhood Selected AbstractsIdeologies of Motherhood in European Community Sex Equality LawEUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 1 2000Clare McGlynn This article argues that, in a series of cases from Hofmann in the mid-1980s to Hill and Stapleton in 1998, the Court of Justice has reproduced, and thereby legitimated, a traditional vision of motherhood and the role of women in the family, and in society generally. This vision, characterised as the ,dominant ideology of motherhood', limits the potential of the Community's sex equality legislation to bring about real improvements in the lives of women. Accordingly, far from alleviating discrimination against women, the Court's jurisprudence is reinforcing traditional assumptions which inhibit women's progress. It is argued that the Court should reject the dominant ideology of motherhood and utilise its interpretative space to pursue a more progressive and liberating rendering of women and men's relationships and obligations to each other and their children. [source] "It wasn't ,let's get pregnant and go do it':" Decision Making in Lesbian Couples Planning Motherhood via Donor InseminationFAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 4 2004Jennifer M. Chabot The process that lesbian couples experienced in using donor insemination (DI) to become parents was examined in this study through interviews of 10 lesbians. Using a decision-making framework embedded in feminist theory, results identified the major decisions involved that conceptualized the transition to parenthood and describe how these decisions were experienced. [source] Migration, Motherhood, Marriage: Cross-Cultural Adaptation of North American Immigrant Mothers in IsraelINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2009Laura I. Sigad This study probes the cross-cultural adaptation patterns of North American women who immigrated to Israel with their Israeli-born husbands (or married there) and are mothers in their new country. In order to undertake a cultural analysis of the interplay between immigration, motherhood and bicultural marriage, we examine: the effects of motherhood and North American culture of origin on cross-cultural adaptation; the effects of immigration to Israel on motherhood and childrearing; the influence of family of origin on the immigrant motherhood experience; and the role of Israeli husbands and their families in the women's cross-cultural adaptation process. We study patterns for the entire group as well as bringing out individual differences. Our main finding is that motherhood serves as the principal social link to the Israeli host society. The high status of North American culture and English proficiency facilitate cross-cultural adaptation in Israel. Our findings reveal transnationalist tendencies co-existing with various adaptation strategies. We propose an expansion of previous acculturation models to accommodate this dual modus vivendi. [source] Motherhood as a Status CharacteristicJOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 4 2004Cecilia L. Ridgeway We present evidence that many of the disadvantaging effects that motherhood has on women's workplace outcomes derive from the devalued social status attached to the task of being a primary caregiver. Using expectation states theory, we argue that when motherhood becomes a salient descriptor of a worker it, like other devalued social distinctions including gender, downwardly biases the evaluations of the worker's job competence and suitability for positions of authority. We predict that the biases evoked by the motherhood role will be more strongly discriminatory than those produced by gender alone because the perceived conflicts between the cultural definitions of the good mother and the ideal worker make motherhood seem more directly relevant to workplace performance. [source] Trust, Social Norms, and MotherhoodJOURNAL OF SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2005Amy Mullin First page of article [source] Authoritative Knowledge and Single Women's Unintentional Pregnancies, Abortions, Adoption, and Single Motherhood: Social Stigma and Structural ViolenceMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2003Marcia A. Ellison This article explores the sources of authoritative knowledge that shaped single, white, middle-class women's unintentional pregnancies and childbearing decisions throughout five reproductive eras. Women who terminated a pregnancy were most influenced by their own personal needs and circumstances, birth mothers' decisions were based on external sources of knowledge, such as their mothers, social workers, and social pressures. In contrast, single mothers based their decision on instincts and their religious or moral beliefs. Reproductive policies further constrained and significantly shaped women's experiences. The social stigma associated with these forms of stratified maternity suggests that categorizing pregnant women by their marital status, or births as out-of-wedlock, reproduces the structural violence implicit to normative models of female sexuality and maternity. This mixed-method study included focus groups to determine the kinds of knowledge women considered authoritative, a mailed survey to quantify these identified sources, and one-on-one interviews to explore outcomes in depth, [authoritative knowledge, social stigma, abortion, birth mothers, single mothers, unintentional pregnancies] [source] Preparing for Motherhood: Authoritative Knowledge and the Undercurrents of Shared Experience in Two Childbirth Education Courses in Cagliari, ItalyMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2000Suzanne K. Ketler This article compares the social settings and teaching organization of two differently structured childbirth education courses in Cagliari, Italy, in order to understand how social processes and contexts work to negotiate authoritative knowledge. Although the explicit goal of both courses was to transmit biomedical knowledge, knowledge based in women's experience nonetheless dominated some course sessions. Thus, I examine the social processes and interactions that enabled women's experiential knowledge to dominate discussions and subsequently share in the authority of biomedical knowledge in some situations. Because few existing studies do so, this article also addresses a gap in our current understanding by exploring not only how experiential knowledge comes to share authority with biomedical knowledge, but also, why it is important that it does. Focusing on the efficacy of differently structured courses, this article informs the planning of future childbirth education courses in similar settings, [childbirth education, authoritative knowledge, reproduction, prenatal care, Italy] [source] Diabetes Before Motherhood: Prepregnancy Diabetes Rates Have More Than DoubledNURSING FOR WOMENS HEALTH, Issue 4 2008Jennifer P. Hellwig MS First page of article [source] Political History and Disparities in Safe Motherhood Between Guatemala and HondurasPOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 1 2006Jeremy Shiffman Each year, worldwide, more than 500,000 women die of complications from childbirth, making this a leading cause of death globally for adult women of reproductive age. Nearly all studies that have sought to explain the persistence of high maternal mortality levels have focused on the supply of and demand for particular health services. We argue that inquiry on health services is useful but insufficient. Robust explanations for safe motherhood outcomes require examination of factors lying deeper in the causal chain. We compare the cases of Guatemala and Honduras to examine historical and structural influences on maternal mortality. Despite being a poorer country than Guatemala, Honduras has a superior safe motherhood record. We argue that four historical and structural factors stand behind this difference: Honduras's relatively stable and Guatemala's turbulent modern political history; the presence of a marginalized indigenous population in Guatemala, but not in Honduras, that the state has had difficulty reaching; a conservative Catholic Church that has played a larger role in Guatemala than Honduras in blocking priority for reproductive health; and more effective advocacy for maternal mortality reduction in Honduras than Guatemala in the face of this opposition. [source] Maternal Mortality, United States and Canada, 1982,1997BIRTH, Issue 1 2000Donna L. Hoyert PhD Background:The 1998 public awareness campaign on Safe Motherhood called attention to the issue of maternal mortality worldwide. This paper focuses upon maternal mortality trends in the United States and Canada, and examines differentials in maternal mortality in the United States by maternal characteristics. Methods:Data from the vital statistics systems of the United States and Canada were used in the analysis. Both systems identify maternal deaths using the definition of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases. Numbers of deaths, maternal mortality rates, and confidence intervals for the rates are shown in the paper. Results:Maternal mortality declined for much of the century in both countries, but the rates have not changed substantially between 1982 and 1997. In this period the maternal mortality levels were lower in Canada than in the United States. Maternal mortality rates vary by maternal characteristics, especially maternal age and race. Conclusions:Maternal mortality continues to be an issue in developed countries, such as the United States and Canada. Maternal mortality rates have been stable recently, despite evidence that many maternal deaths continue to be preventable. Additional investment is needed to realize further improvements in maternal mortality. [source] No Longer "One of the Boys": Negotiations with Motherhood, as Prospect or Reality, among Women in Engineering*CANADIAN REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGY/REVUE CANADIENNE DE SOCIOLOGIE, Issue 2 2005GILLIAN RANSONArticle first published online: 23 JAN 200 La maternité est généralement considérée comme constituant un tournant dans la carrière des femmes professionnelles, particulièrement chez celles qui occupent des emplois à prédominance masculine. S'inspirant de la documentation dans le domaine des femmes et du travail non traditionnel, l'auteure de cet article tente d'expliquer la signification critique de la maternité, antieipée ou réelle, pour les femmes travaillant dans le domaine de l'ingénierie. Elle va au-delà des arguments plus conventionnels sur l'équilibre travail-famille en suggérant que les femmes entreprennent une carrière en génie non en tant que femmes, mais conceptuellement comme des hommes , un statut qu'elles peuvent trouver difficile à conserver en tant que mères. Le défi pour celles qui deviennent effectivement mères est alors de gérer la tension découlant de l'obligation d'équilibrer deux identités potentiellement incompatibles , celle de«mère» et celle d'« ingénieure ». Cette conception est étudiée empiriquement au moyen de données d'interviews de 37 femmes formées comme ingénieures. Motherhood is widely considered to be a watershed in the careers of professional women, particularly those working in male-dominated occupations. Building on the literature in the field of women and non-traditional work, this paper seeks to account for the critical significance of motherhood, either anticipated or actual, for women in engineering. The paper moves beyond more conventional work-family balance arguments in suggesting that women enter engineering not as women, but conceptually as men,a status that, as mothers, they may find difficult to maintain. The challenge for those who do become mothers, then, is to manage the tension of balancing two potentially incongruous identities,"mother" and "engineer." This view is explored empirically through interview data from 37 women trained as engineers. [source] Motherhood, Resistance and Attention Deficit Disorder: Strategies and Limits,CANADIAN REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGY/REVUE CANADIENNE DE SOCIOLOGIE, Issue 2 2001Claudia Malacrida Étant donné son ambiguïté sur les plans culturel et historique, l'ap-pellation psychiatrique de trouble déficitaire de I'attention (hyperac-tivité) entraîne les mères dans un conflit avec les discours sur l'image de la bonne mère, la normativité familiale, les compétences profes-sionnelles et la notion de risque. L'éude d entretiens avec 34 femmes au Canada et en Angleterre a permis de comprendre, du point de vue des femmes, les mécanismes de la connaissance et du pouvoir qui sous-tendent les relations avec des professionnels de la médecine, de la psychiatrie et de l'éducation. Les mères se sont approprié une vaste gamme de méthodes discursives afin de se présenter elles et leur famille comme des personnes méritantes, louables et cultivées. Elles se sont engagées dans l'examen scrupuleux des méthodes éduca-tionnelles et psychiatriques par l'intermédiaire du bénévolat, de la contribution à la conception de politiques, de la tenue de dossiers et du recours à des témoins externes afin de renforcer leur légitimité. Par ailleurs, de nombreuses femmes se sont engagées dans le jeu de la vérité, ont choisi la confrontation et, finalement, le refus. Toutefois, étant donné que des enfants vulnerables sont en jeu, la capacité des mères a résister véritablement reste limitée. The psychiatric category Attention Deficit Disorder (Hyperactivity), because of its cultural and historical ambiguity, brings mothers into conflict with discourses of good motherhood, family normativity, professional knowledge and risk. Interviews with 34 women in Canada and England were conducted as a way to understand, from women's perspectives, the workings of knowledge and power encountered in dealing with medical, psychiatric and educational professionals. Mothers took up a wide range of discursive practices in attempts to position themselves and their families as worthy, deserving and knowledgeable. They also engaged in scrutiny of educational and psychiatric practice through volunteering, policy contributions, record keeping and using outside witnesses to shore up their legitimacy. As well, many engaged in knowledge/truth games, confrontation and, ultimately, refusal. However, because vulnerable children are at stake, mothers' ability to truly resist remains limited. [source] Alcohol abuse in a metropolitan city in China: a study of the prevalence and risk factorsADDICTION, Issue 9 2004Zhang Jiafang ABSTRACT Aims To investigate the prevalence of alcohol abuse in modern China and to explore the risk factors that may be associated with alcohol abuse. Design A face-to-face interview was carried out in a random sample with 2327 respondents. Setting Respondents were selected randomly from Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, between May and June 2002. Participants Fifteen,65-year-old urban Chinese adults. Measurements Scores for alcohol abuse and related risk factors were the main measures. Findings (1) Nearly 15% of urban Chinese adults aged 15,65 were alcohol abusers. (2) Deviant drinking habits of mother, schoolmates, colleagues or friends all had a negative impact on the respondent's alcohol drinking behaviours, and higher economic status, current smokers, being male and being older were identified as risk factors related to alcohol abuse. In particular, if a drinker's mother used alcohol frequently then this drinker was more likely to become an alcohol abuser than those drinkers whose mothers did not use alcohol frequently (P = 0.0001). Fathers' drinking behaviours do not have a significant impact on the alcohol abusers. Conclusions In addition to common risk factors such as economic status, deviant peers' and fellows' drinking behaviours and negative attitudes to alcohol drinking, maternal alcohol drinking habit influenced significantly the offspring's drinking habits. Therefore, efficient intervention and education of healthy drinking habits in early motherhood is necessary for Chinese women. [source] Where Mourning Takes Them: Migrants, Borders, and an Alternative RealityETHOS, Issue 2 2010David P. Sandell Mourning, family members and acquaintances indicate, is an indefinite process revealed through figurative representations: metaphor and metonym. Mourning as metaphor associates an actual death with instances of loss that occur in other semantic domains,the household, motherhood, and gender constructions. As a metonym, mourning stands for these instances, which, collectively, account for a substratum of social life that is not amenable to logical criticism but persists in the formation of perception and judgment. This dialectic highlights epistemological and ontological borders that provide insight into people's dispositions within the conditions of poverty and wage labor. The borders also provide a vantage point for novel identification, ethical orientation, and behavior that come to shape an alternative reality. [mourning, migration, identity, poetics, Mexico] [source] Ideologies of Motherhood in European Community Sex Equality LawEUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 1 2000Clare McGlynn This article argues that, in a series of cases from Hofmann in the mid-1980s to Hill and Stapleton in 1998, the Court of Justice has reproduced, and thereby legitimated, a traditional vision of motherhood and the role of women in the family, and in society generally. This vision, characterised as the ,dominant ideology of motherhood', limits the potential of the Community's sex equality legislation to bring about real improvements in the lives of women. Accordingly, far from alleviating discrimination against women, the Court's jurisprudence is reinforcing traditional assumptions which inhibit women's progress. It is argued that the Court should reject the dominant ideology of motherhood and utilise its interpretative space to pursue a more progressive and liberating rendering of women and men's relationships and obligations to each other and their children. [source] "Not the Romantic, All Happy, Coochy Coo Experience": A Qualitative Analysis of Interactions on an Irish Parenting Web SiteFAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 1 2010Ellen Brady Support groups in online communities provide an anonymous place to exchange information and advice. Previous research has suggested that these groups offer a safe, nonjudgmental forum for new parents to share experiences and interact anonymously. This study investigated how participants in online parenting groups experience support via the Internet and what types of support they receive. All posts made over a 2-week period on the parenting-related discussion boards of an Irish parenting Web site were analyzed using content and thematic analyses. Exploratory, semistructured interviews were also conducted with 2 forum participants to discuss their experience of using the Web site. Themes uncovered from the data gathered included the attempts by posters to dispel the myths surrounding motherhood and the recognition of the superiority of the mother as caregiver. The results revealed that the parenting Web site was seen as a safe, supportive space, in which mothers could develop an enhanced frame of reference in which to better understand the role of parenting. The role of online support groups as a viable solution to the decreasing social networks created by modern society is discussed, along with the implications of the findings for future practice and research. [source] Preaching Religion, Family and Memory in Nineteenth-Century EnglandGENDER & HISTORY, Issue 1 2010Eve Colpus This article explores the religious selfhood of an exemplary Bible Christian woman, Mary Thorne (1807,1883). Founded in 1815 as a splinter group of Wesleyan Methodism, the Bible Christian denomination invoked an epistemology which stressed the correlation between religious and familial obligations. A close study of Mary Thorne's private writings suggests the tensions which existed within this ideal at the level of everyday life. Her writings open a window on a religious woman's negotiation of her public identity alongside her experiences of marriage, sexuality and motherhood. They show the impact of age, life cycle and memory in the process of self-imagining and commemoration. Critically, they also show how dependent Thorne's self-realisation and presentation were on material signs of her identity. In understanding the varying constructions of Mary Thorne's religious selfhood, I argue we might more fully understand the material cultures that underpinned evangelical religion and domesticity in nineteenth-century Britain. [source] ,I'm Home for the Kids': Contradictory Implications for Work,Life Balance of Teleworking MothersGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 5 2008Margo Hilbrecht This study explores the experience of time flexibility and its relationship to work,life balance among married female teleworkers with school-aged children. Drawing from a larger study of teleworkers from a Canadian financial corporation, 18 mothers employed in professional positions discussed work, leisure and their perceptions of work,life balance in in-depth interviews. Telework was viewed positively because flexible scheduling facilitated optimal time management. A key factor was the pervasiveness of caregiving, which could result in ongoing tensions and contradictions between the ethic of care and their employment responsibilities. The ideology of ,intensive mothering' meant that work schedules were closely tied to the rhythms of children's school and leisure activities. The different temporal demands of motherhood and employment resulted in little opportunity for personal leisure. Time ,saved' from not having to commute to an office was reallocated to caregiving, housework or paid employment rather than to time for their self. The women also experienced a traditional gendered division of household labour and viewed telework as a helpful tool for combining their dual roles. Time flexibility enhanced their sense of balancing work and life and their perceived quality of life. At the same time, they did not question whether having the primary responsibility for caregiving while engaged in paid employment at home was fair or whether it was a form of exploitation. [source] Constructing the Deviant Other: Mothering and Fathering at the WorkplaceGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 2 2006Clarissa Kugelberg Gender stereotyping is a widely described and documented process that permeates working life in western societies. It is characterized by ascribing greatly simplified attributes to women and men and forging a dualistic view of gender in which women and men are conceptualized as antipodes to each other. Through this ongoing reproduction of simplistic views; contradictions, variations and complexities are concealed, together with the richness of individuals' competence and experiences. Intimately related to this gender stereotyping are assumptions that distinct kinds of jobs and positions fit either men or women. In this article I investigate the constructions of motherhood and fatherhood as important elements in the processes of gender stereotyping. I argue that the production of stereotypes is part of an inter-discursive contest which has a significant impact on gender relations and women's opportunities. My discussion derives from an anthropological study of one workplace. [source] The Experience of Academic Non-Mothers in the Gendered UniversityGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 1 2006Karen Ramsay In this article we report on data from an empirical study concerned to explore the experience of women academics managing non-motherhood and work in the gendered university. Although there is a growing body of work on the gendered experience of higher education in general and the experience of mothers as academics in particular, as yet there is little on non-mothers and work. Drawing on our data we suggest that non-mothers as well as mothers are affected by the ideology of motherhood and this has consequences for non-mothers as workers within the academy. In addition to being perceived by students and other staff as ,natural' carers because they are women, academic non-mothers are expected to put in the time and energy that mothers can not. However, as our data demonstrate, non-mothers often have caring responsibilities outside the institution too. Overall, we argue that non-motherhood needs to be recognized for the complex identity that it is. [source] Gonadal hormone modulation of hippocampal neurogenesis in the adultHIPPOCAMPUS, Issue 3 2006Liisa A.M. Galea Abstract Gonadal hormones modulate neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG) of adult rodents in complex ways. Estradiol, the most potent estrogen, initially enhances and subsequently suppresses cell proliferation in the dentate gryus of adult female rodents. Much less is known about how estradiol modulates neurogenesis in the adult male rodent; however, recent evidence suggests that estradiol may have a moderate effect on cell proliferation but enhances cell survival in the DG of newly synthesized cells but only when estradiol is administered during a specific stage in the cell maturation cycle in the adult male rodent. Testosterone likely plays a role in adult neurogenesis, although there have been no direct studies to address this. However, pilot studies from our laboratory suggest that testosterone up-regulates cell survival but not cell proliferation in the DG of adult male rats. Progesterone appears to attenuate the estradiol-induced enhancement of cell proliferation. Neurosteroids such as allopregnalone decrease neurogenesis in adult rodents, while pregnancy and motherhood differentially regulate adult neurogenesis in the adult female rodent. Very few studies have investigated the effects of gonadal hormones on male rodents; however, studies have indicated that there is a gender difference in the response to hormone-regulated hippocampal neurogenesis in the adult. Clearly, more work needs to be done to elucidate the effects of gonadal hormones on neurogenesis in the DG of both male and female rodents. © 2006 Wiley-Liss Inc. [source] Parent, child, and contextual predictors of childhood physical punishmentINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2002Lianne J. Woodward Abstract Data gathered over the course of an 18-year longitudinal study of 1025 New Zealand children were used to: (a) develop a profile of the maternal, child, and contextual factors associated with differing levels of exposure to maternal physical punishment, and (b) identify the key predictors of maternal physical punishment as reported by young people at age 18. Results revealed the presence of clear linear associations between the extent of young people's reported exposure to physical punishment and a wide range of maternal, child, and contextual factors. The key predictors of physical punishment suggested that the psychosocial profile of those mothers at greatest risk of physically punishing or mistreating their child was that of a young woman with a personal history of strict parenting who entered motherhood at an early age, and who was attempting to parent a behaviourally difficult child within a dysfunctional family environment characterized by elevated rates of inter-parental violence and childhood sexual abuse. These findings were consistent with a cumulative risk factor model in which increasing risk factor exposure is associated with increasing levels of child physical punishment/maltreatment. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Language development of pre-school children born to teenage mothersINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2001Louise J. Keown Abstract An Erratum has been published for this article in Infant and Child Development 10(4) 2001, 241. This paper compares the language development of pre-school children born to teenage (n=22) and comparison mothers (n=20) and examines the extent to which differences in language development can be explained by social background, child and parenting factors. Mothers and children were assessed at home using a range of measures, including a structured interview, the language scales of the Child Development Inventory, the HOME Inventory, and videotaped mother-child interaction. Results showed that children of teenage mothers perform significantly poorer than children of comparison mothers on measures of expressive language and language comprehension. Subsequent analyses showed that these differences are largely explained by differences in the parenting behaviour of teenage and comparison mothers. Specifically, maternal verbal stimulation and intrusiveness accounted for the relationship between teenage motherhood and children's poorer language comprehension, while maternal intrusiveness and involvement with the child account for the relationship between teenage motherhood and children's poorer expressive language development. These findings highlight the importance of early mother,child interaction for children's language development. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Young African American mothers' changing perceptions of their infants during the transition to parenthood,INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 5 2009Cynthia O. Lashley Although theory and empirical research with middle-class, mostly White women have suggested that motherhood is an important developmental transition for women, rarely have investigations of adolescent motherhood systematically examined developmental change. This study examines one aspect of change during the transition to parenthood: the mother's emerging perception of her infant. During pregnancy and at 4 months' postpartum, 220 urban African American mothers between the ages of 13 and 21 years were asked to describe their infants. Content analysis of their responses and ratings of the affective tone of the responses suggest that there are changes from pregnancy to 4 months after the birth that parallel shifts noted in literature on women going through the transition to motherhood as adults. Between pregnancy and 4 months, there was a decreasing focus on infant health and physical appearance and an increasing focus on infant behavioral achievements and personality characteristics. Of particular importance to mothers was that their infants be "good" babies who were easy to care for and were easily accepted by the family. Mothers imagined physical similarities with their infants during pregnancy and describe aspects of their interaction and emotional bond with their infants at 4 months. Overall, mothers' descriptions of their babies were quite positive, increasingly positive over time, and offered little evidence that for these young African American women the transition to parenthood was problematic. [source] The Chances for Children Teen Parent,Infant Project: Results of a pilot intervention for teen mothers and their infants in inner city high schools,INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 4 2008Hillary A. Mayers Adolescent motherhood poses serious challenges to mothers, to infants, and ultimately to society, particularly if the teen mother is part of a minority population living in an urban environment. This study examines the effects of a treatment intervention targeting low-income, high-risk teen mothers and their infants in the context of public high schools where daycare is available onsite. Our findings confirm the initial hypothesis that mothers who received intervention would improve their interactions with their infants in the areas of responsiveness, affective availability, and directiveness. In addition, infants in the treatment group were found to increase their interest in mother, respond more positively to physical contact, and improve their general emotional tone, which the comparison infants did not. Importantly, these findings remain even within the subset of mothers who scored above the clinical cutoff for depression on the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D; L. Radloff, 1977), confirming that it is possible to improve mother,infant interaction without altering the mother's underlying depression. The implications of these findings are significant both because it is more difficult and requires more time to alter maternal depression than maternal behavior and because maternal depression has been found to have such devastating effects on infants. [source] Symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in first-time expectant women: Relations with parenting cognitions and behaviorsINFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 1 2007Jerilyn E. Ninowski The relationship between maternal symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and parenting cognitions and behaviors was studied in 86 first-time expectant women. Women high on ADHD symptoms were less likely to be married, less likely to have obtained at least some university education, and less likely to report that they wanted to get pregnant at the time they became pregnant. As predicted, ADHD symptoms were positively correlated with symptoms of anxiety and depression, and predicted less positive prenatal expectations regarding the infant and the future maternal role and lower maternal self-efficacy. Contrary to predictions, ADHD did not predict any incremental variance in maternal stressful life events or social support. Symptoms of ADHD were negatively correlated with attendance at recommended prenatal checkups, but were unrelated to other behaviors during pregnancy. Findings suggest that even prior to any contact with their infant, women with ADHD symptoms have maladaptive cognitions regarding their expectations of motherhood and parenting abilities. As a result, they may benefit from early interventions that focus on attenuating the potential negative effects that these maladaptive cognitions might have on the mother-infant relationship and later developmental outcomes for their children. [source] Enhancing the effectiveness of residential treatment for substance abusing pregnant and parenting women: Focus on maternal reflective functioning and mother-child relationshipINFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 5 2006Marjukka Pajulo Substance abuse during early motherhood has become a significant problem and has led to accelerated efforts to develop specific treatment facilities for these mothers and children. Despite the often intensive treatment efforts in residential settings, there is surprisingly little evidence of their efficacy for enhancing the quality of caregiving. The situation of these mother-child pairs is exceptionally complex and multilevel, and has to be taken into account in the content and structuring of treatment. Intensive work in the "here and now" focusing on the mother-child relationship from pregnancy onwards in an effort to enhance maternal reflective capacity and mindedness is considered a key element for better treatment prognosis, in terms of both abstinence and quality of parenting. Pioneering work with such a focus is described in this article. [source] Maternal representations during pregnancy and early motherhoodINFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 1 2004Ebru Taskin Ilicali The aim of the present study was to study the maternal representations of pregnant women and mothers in their early postpartum period, by beginning the process of validating the maternal representations questionnaire L'entretien R1 and by developing a means to assess the content-free aspects of the representations. Participants were 23 primiparous (first-time mothers) pregnant women in their fourth to seventh month of pregnancy and 22 primiparous mothers in their early (zero to six months) postpartum period. It was found that the four subscales of L'entretien (self-as-mother, self-as-person, own-mother, and partner) produced meaningful results for Turkish subjects. The results were compatible with the idea of integrated representations of self-as-person and self-as-mother even in the second trimester of their pregnancy and also showed that they could differentiate themselves from their mothers as early as that period. The results revealed no significant differences in the content and content-free dimensions of the representations of pregnant women and mothers. ©2004 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. [source] Migration, Motherhood, Marriage: Cross-Cultural Adaptation of North American Immigrant Mothers in IsraelINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2009Laura I. Sigad This study probes the cross-cultural adaptation patterns of North American women who immigrated to Israel with their Israeli-born husbands (or married there) and are mothers in their new country. In order to undertake a cultural analysis of the interplay between immigration, motherhood and bicultural marriage, we examine: the effects of motherhood and North American culture of origin on cross-cultural adaptation; the effects of immigration to Israel on motherhood and childrearing; the influence of family of origin on the immigrant motherhood experience; and the role of Israeli husbands and their families in the women's cross-cultural adaptation process. We study patterns for the entire group as well as bringing out individual differences. Our main finding is that motherhood serves as the principal social link to the Israeli host society. The high status of North American culture and English proficiency facilitate cross-cultural adaptation in Israel. Our findings reveal transnationalist tendencies co-existing with various adaptation strategies. We propose an expansion of previous acculturation models to accommodate this dual modus vivendi. [source] Turkish women's perceptions of antenatal educationINTERNATIONAL NURSING REVIEW, Issue 3 2010P. Serçeku Serçeku, P. & Mete S. (2010) Turkish women's perceptions of antenatal education. International Nursing Review57, 395,401 Background:, Antenatal education is considered essential for expectant women. Although there are a number of studies on the effects of antenatal education, there are few studies featuring substantial evidence in this area. For this reason, the benefits have not been clearly defined. Aim:, To describe women's perceptions of the effectiveness of antenatal education on pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period, and also to describe their impressions on the type of education received. Methods:, A qualitative approach was used. The study featured 15 primipara women who had attended antenatal education. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and analysed using the content analysis method. Findings:, The results of this study showed that education provided a basis of knowledge about pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period. It was found that education could have positive effects on pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, motherhood and infant care, and that it could at the same time have a positive or negative effect on fear of childbirth. Although different advantages were found to be perceived in both individual and group education, it was discovered that the study participants were much more satisfied with attending group sessions. Key conclusions and implications for practice:, Antenatal education should be planned in such a way that its content and methodology do not increase fear. When the lower costs incurred and the higher satisfaction level attained are considered, group education appears to be the type of antenatal education that should be preferred. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||