Reading Level: All levels.
| Chapter Guide Topic Guide | Personal Health | Disciplines
Your Complimentary Custom Book |
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| Chapter: Pregnancy and Childbirth | ||
| Add View | 14 pp. | Staggenborg: Abortion as a Social Problem (Essay) |
| This essay looks at the roles of different interest groups, or claimsmakers, and social contexts in the public definition of abortion as a social problem. A focus on the actions and interests of claimsmakers also shows why the abortion conflict is so enduring and helps to predict what the author believes is the likely outcome. | ||
| Add | 16 pp. | Becoming a Mother |
| Psychology has focused on the child half of the mother-child dyad, but mothers develop too. Becoming a mother involves changes in work and marital roles, the physical self, self-image, and identity. The contradictions of motherhood for American women is explored in terms of a context in which motherhood is represented as every woman’s natural fulfillment, yet childbirth is viewed as a medical event. | ||
| Add | 24 pp. | Collins, Patricia Hill, “Black Women and Motherhood” |
| Top | In this chapter from Black Feminist Thought, Collins argues that Black mothers have been harshly criticized by white males while being glorified in the Black community as ‘‘super-strong’’ with little attention paid to the personal cost of that strength. She describes the concept of ‘‘other mothering’’ in the African-American community and its relationship to West African family patterns, female esteem, and political activism. Collins sees ‘‘other mothering’’ as a revolutionary move undermining capitalism and discusses the dilemmas that African-American mothers face raising daughters. Reading Level: All levels. | |
| Add | 7 pp. | Zamula, “Drugs & Pregnancy: Often the Two Don’t Mix” (Contemporary) |
| Discusses the effects of several different drugs on unborn children. For example, before it was taken off the market, the drug Thalidomide caused major physical defects in babies. The author describes how a mother’s smoking just two cigarettes a day can threaten a fetus’ survival. | ||
| Add | 13 pp. | Experiences of Mothering |
| The varied social realities of mothering are explored for single, poor, African-American or Hispanic, and lesbian women. Since the majority combine mothering with paid work, the effects of mothers’ employment on both children and mothers are discussed. In many ways, mothers must adapt to a society that does not provide necessary social support for those who care for the young, yet often blame them for children’s problems and dysfunctions. | ||
| Add | 17 pp. | Luker, “Motherhood and Morality in America” |
| Top | In these excerpts from her book ‘‘Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood’’ (1984), Luker examines ways in which differing backgrounds and social positions of women explain their stances on the abortion issue. | |