Abstract:
Objective:
The aim of this paper was to examine one woman's
experience and memory of learning to mother during
pregnancy and the first postnatal year.
Design:
Narratives of experience and memory were elicited
through three in-depth interviews: during the third
trimester of pregnancy; at four to six weeks
postpartum; and, when the infant was nine months old.
Feminist poststructural approaches informed the
interview process. Through discourse' analysis the
detail of this woman's experiences was read closely in
terms of the constructions, tensions, gaps, absences and
contradictions as she reflected on what and how she
learned to mother.
Setting:
The woman was interviewed in her home.
Participants:
The larger research study from which the data in
this article are drawn was an extended interview study
of 15 women over a 12-month period.
Results:
The close analysis of the data exemplifIes the
outcomes of the larger study from which it was drawn,
in its demonstration of the complex and often
contradictory processes of maternal learning. An
understanding of this complexity is argued to be an
essential condition for effective and inclusive nursing
and midwifery intervention.
Conclusions:
Norms of 'good' mothering have been traditionally
narrow within nursing literature. Although this is
changing, these norms still serve to shape and also
restrict possible positions women can take up to make
sense of their experience. They provide background to
the complex, and sometimes contradictory, processes
of learning that take place during the perinatal period.
