Motherhood Flyer - Parents Centres New Zealand Inc

MEANINGMOTHERHOOD 28 November 2008
Afternoon Workshops
Exploring Motherhood*
* Each conference parEcipant will choose two workshops
Workshop 1:
Am I S;ll a Mother? Making Meaning of Motherhood
AIer the Death of a Baby
Vicki Culling & Claire Wright
Pregnancy, as a rite of passage, has a liminal status that
places women between two structural states ‐ that of
before and a9er the arrival of the child. We will discuss
the absence of one group of mothers who remain
suspended between those two states ‐ neither
expec4ng their child nor having them biologically
present. What becomes of these mothers? Do they
have the right to be called mothers if the way we
construct motherhood is based on the presence of
children? What language is available to those mothers
in terms of voicing their experience and claiming
themselves as mothers? Almost all of the literature
that focuses on motherhood goes on to discuss the role
of children in the maintenance of iden4ty, on dominant
motherhood ideologies ('good mother' versus 'bad
mother') and myths of motherhood. Some4mes there
are references to those that fall outside the dominant
model ‐ the teenage mothers, single mothers, lesbian
mothers. Nowhere is there any discussion about the
babyless/childless mother. We want to start such a
discussion. We will draw upon the experiences of
different mothers whose children have died ‐ mothers
who have no living children, mothers whose first born/
children died and now have subsequent living children,
mothers who had living children and whose
subsequent baby/child died.
Workshop 2:
Who Are Teen Mothers? We Know Who We Are!
Ruth MarEs
Teenage pregnancies have become an issue of
increasing concern in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Currently
If an expectant mother walked into a library and asked,
‘How will my baby develop?’ the librarian could show
her some books on infant development. If, however,
she asked, ‘What about me? How will I develop as a
mother?’ the librarian would probably look surprised.
The idea that mothers develop isn’t a common subject
for a book. Almost the opposite. Many people seem
to think that mothers risk stagnating. Especially if a
mother isn’t out at work, people assume she must be
‘stuck’ at home doing boring and repetitive chores with
little to stimulate her.’
Naomi Stadlen
we have the second highest teenage pregnancy rate in
the developed world. Young teenage women who are
pregnant o9en do not seek early antenatal care for a
variety of reasons and are unlikely to breasteed their
babies. They feel isolated and judged in our society. In
the 2002 Maternity Services Consumer Survey, women
aged 15‐19 were less likely than older mothers to have
been sa4sfied with maternity services. Yet, the truth is,
if we would listen to their voices we would discover
what motherhood means to these young women, how
motherhood is constructed via their experiences and
what iden4fied support could assist them in their
journey to motherhood. The presenta4on will cover
some New Zealand sta4s4cs of teenage pregnancies
and explore needs and issues that might surround and
affect teenage mothering through a visual presenta4on
of research on a small sample of teenage mother’s
stories and subsequent thema4c extrac4ons.
Workshop 3:
Journey Home: Adop;ve Mothers and the Meaning of
Motherhood
Jocelyn Johnstone
My Masters thesis described the experiences of
adop4ve mother’s and fathers in ways they sought to
build a paren4ng and aYachment rela4onship with
their adop4ve children from an orphanage in Russia. It
explored factors that facilitated and hindered the
rela4onship from an aYachment developmental
perspec4ve. The research used a phenomenological
approach which aimed to hear mothers’ stories.
Research methods included ques4onnaires, focus
groups and in‐depth interviews. Adop4ve mothers
shared of their transi4ons from that of being a working
mother to a mother at home with their new adop4ve
children. These encompassed the ongoing transi4ons
from the grief of not having their own biological
children, to the decision to adopt, to the prepara4on
process, followed by the subsequent phone call and
trip/s to Russia. The process of becoming a mother
from the first mee4ng of their children in the
orphanage required an enormous commitment,
adapta4on and resilience from these women. Their
stories are inspira4onal and we can all learn from
them. The workshop will focus on the meaning of
motherhood from an adop4ve mother's perspec4ve,
how she makes meaning of this role, her journey to
motherhood and the ongoing mothering rela4onship in
her iden4ty?