Description
‘To be a mother is to take on one of the most emotionally and intellectually demanding, exasperating, strenuous, anxiety-arousing and deeply satisfying tasks that any human being can undertake.’ So says Sheila Kitzinger in this exciting, breakthrough book in which she explores those universal experiences: birth and motherhood. She writes with understanding of the problems facing mothers in the West today, about the pain of infertility, the struggles of working mothers, the myth of the ‘new man’ and the underrating of housework, and ways in which women try to juggle with their identities as mothers and as achievers in a man’s world.
Sheila Kitzinger looks closely at many aspects of motherhood, from preparing for pregnancy to the ritualization of hospital birth, from the mystique surrounding the bonds forged between mother and child to the changes in behaviour expected of women when they become mothers, and describes how concepts of motherhood and ritual surround it differ between cultures. Citing examples from India to Jamaica, South Africa to Communist China, she highlights the role of women in different cultures and the varying ways in which images of motherhood are socially constructed.
Powerfully and sensitively written, Ourselves As Mothers is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging study of its kind, and an invaluable contribution to our knowledge of women and society. It is a book that reveals deep awareness of women’s shared experience across the world.
‘Sheila Kitzinger has revolutionized childbirth’ Woman’s Own
Paperback, 256 pages. In very good to excellent preloved condition with the exception of crease to the spine and minor wear to lower right corner of front cover.