This chapter draws together the theoretical debates raised by the empirical data in relation to reflexivity, narratives and gendered selves in late modernity. The research and fieldwork observations collected together in this book enable us to see, close up, how mothering and motherhood are differently – and similarly – experienced, and culturally, socially, historically and politically patterned and shaped. The profound difficulties of voicing unexpected and unanticipated personal experiences of early mothering are confounded by the moral context in which women continue to mother in the West. This context is shaped in different ways and is underpinned by essentialist assumptions of women's instinctive capacities to be there for others, meeting needs and acting responsibly. So entrenched are these assumptions that women coming to motherhood are guided by reference to them and can be distressed and confused when ‘natural’ and ‘instinctive’ feelings elude them in the early days and weeks – and sometimes months – of mothering. A social self as a mother has to be developed. But letting go of essentialist expectations can be tricky, striking at the very core of a woman's sense of her self as a ‘real’ woman. The parameters around what can and cannot be said in relation to our dependent children can lead to normal ‘difficult’ experiences of early mothering remaining unvoiced; ironically, this self-silencing only serves to further perpetuate the old myths of motherhood.