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Experience of Motherhood |
27ÌýFebÌý2008 |
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Has motherhood lived up to expectations?
Today Woman’s Hour is a phone-in devoted to the subject of motherhood. Whether it’s the matriarchs of the Old Testament, icons of the Madonna in Medieval churches, images of Victorian femininity in Coventry Patmore's poem, 'Angel in the House' or that good old cliché, the 1950s housewife, motherhood has been presented as an ideal. Now, with fertility less and less taken for granted, it is a state eagerly anticipated by many women. But what happens if it doesn’t live up to expectations? A Royal College of Midwives survey last year found that 20% of new mothers suffer from post natal depression. Many other women find themselves subject to very contradictory feelings: they love their children intensely, but also find the demands they make can produce some very ambivalent and sometimes even hostile feelings.
In yesterday's special edition of Woman’s Hour, Jenni and guests including novelist Rachel Cusk, singer turned writer Louise Wenner, and psychologist Penelope Leach explored the ideal of motherhood. And today’s programme is a chance for you to respond with your own views and experiences to the question which is more natural: maternal instincts, or maternal ambivalence? Let us know what you think.
Let us know what you think on 08700 100 444
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