Introduction

For most of the twentieth century, the dominant North American view of mothering was that one woman – the biological mother – should take almost exclusive responsibility for taking care of children during their formative years, and conversely that children need “constant care and attention from one caretaker, their biological mother” (Glenn 1994: 3). This view is called “the ideology of intensive mothering” by Sharon Hays (1996). It “declares that mothering is exclusive, wholly child centered, emotionally involving, and time-consuming. The mother portrayed in this ideology is devoted to the care of others” and self-sacrificing (Arendell 2000: 1194). An intensive mother is held and holds herself accountable for keeping her children fed and housed and “for shaping the kinds of adults these children will become” (Hays 1996: 108). Intensive mothering ideology is dominated by and exhibits a logic of family and private life that requires a moral commitment to “relationships grounded in affection and mutual obligations” (Hays 1996: 152). Among other things, intensive mothering ideology assumes a seamless progression from conception to birth. However, some women's abilities to manage this trajectory is fragile and unpredictable; an easy pregnancy followed by the birth of a healthy infant cannot always be assumed.