Overview

Stories of women who mother are central to this book. The women come to mothering through birth and adoption, as birth mothers, placing mothers, adopting mothers and teen mothers. Woven between the women's narratives, the author offers reflective commentary intended to show the mothering experience in its complexity—bodily, culturally, and as the rootbed of relationship. Using phenomenological research, Bergum brings the mothering experience to light—as it is lived—exploring themes of love and pain, responsibility, belonging, choice, transformation, and quickening of the moral impulse to attend to the child. Bergum's intent is to encourage thoughtful reflection about what is learned through mothering—by women and by society—in order to create and sustain a society that is good for children and the women who mother them.

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9780897894463

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Reviews

The voices of a rich diversity of women who share the transformative experience of becoming mothers are the basis of Bergum's intensely emotional contribution to parenting literature. The themes of mothering as choice and responsibility, as love and pain, and, ultimately, as transformation emerge from accounts of mothers who give birth, two mothers connected by adoption, and teen mothers, as well as from consideration of the universal mother... [A] lyrical, moving essay... [Bergum's] writing is provocative and compelling. - Booklist Bergum shines brightest in her final chapter, The Way of the Mother. Here she does an artful job of drawing out the commonalities in the varied experiences of motherhood described by the diverse group of women she has interviewed, and she makes an eloquent case for motherhood as the basis of a morality of responsibility. - Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering

"""The voices of a rich diversity of women who share the transformative experience of becoming mothers are the basis of Bergum's intensely emotional contribution to parenting literature. The themes of mothering as choice and responsibility, as love and pain, and, ultimately, as transformation emerge from accounts of mothers who give birth, two mothers connected by adoption, and teen mothers, as well as from consideration of the universal mother. . . . [A] lyrical, moving essay. . . . [Bergum's] writing is provocative and compelling."" - Booklist ""Bergum shines brightest in her final chapter, The Way of the Mother. Here she does an artful job of drawing out the commonalities in the varied experiences of motherhood described by the diverse group of women she has interviewed, and she makes an eloquent case for motherhood as the basis of a morality of responsibility."" - Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering"

The voices of a rich diversity of women who share the transformative experience of becoming mothers are the basis of Bergum's intensely emotional contribution to parenting literature. The themes of mothering as choice and responsibility, as love and pain, and, ultimately, as transformation emerge from accounts of mothers who give birth, two mothers connected by adoption, and teen mothers, as well as from consideration of the universal mother. . . . [A] lyrical, moving essay. . . . [Bergum's] writing is provocative and compelling. * Booklist * Bergum shines brightest in her final chapter, The Way of the Mother. Here she does an artful job of drawing out the commonalities in the varied experiences of motherhood described by the diverse group of women she has interviewed, and she makes an eloquent case for motherhood as the basis of a morality of responsibility. * Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering *

Vangie Bergum explores [the mother/child] relationships through the narrative voice of the women in her research--a methodology for the science of wisdom, distinct and different from the reductionist science of reproduction and obstetrics . . . Seen from this perspective, our whole healthcare involvement in the birthing of children takes on a very different slant. The technology of delivery is diminished... by the horizons of this broader vision. The narratives challenge us to reflect about this self/other relationship and the light it could throw on those other complex relationships which concern us in delivery of healthcare, as well as how it should inform and transform our thinking about our still largely patriarchal society. -Dr. John B. Dossetor, Director The Bioethics Centre, University of Alberta, Canada

Author Information

Vangie Bergum, PhD, is Professor in The Bioethics Centre and the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta. She is principal investigator of the Ethics of Nurturance Research Project which produced the video and, they want a child (University of Alberta, 1996). She is the author of numerous works, including Woman to Mother: A Transformation (Bergin & Garvey, 1989).

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