In this solo episode I reflect on my own journey of coming to Motherhood Studies and what is has meant to study Motherhood before coming a Mother myself.

I share important distinctions between Motherhood the structure, Mothering the practice, and Mother the identity, and ponder on the ways our socialisation has set us up for a particular perspective on what it means to be a Mother and how this is perhaps connected to experiences of the ‘maternal’ being devalued socially and professionally.

There is incredible power and potential in the practice of mothering and identity as a Mother, and we experience the complexity of our own matrescence journeys and rites of passage as Mothers.

But these theories are distinct from (but connected to) the social institution of Motherhood that I critique, and that produces the perfect mother myth and its associated consequences.

Making such distinctions allows us to be able to straddle the complexities and nuances that are so often necessary when discussing Motherhood, and supporting Mothers.

In this episode I explore this claiming of space for the maternal, and reflect on the ways that Motherhood is simultaneously valorized and devalued, and how guilt is often a byproduct of our internalisation of patriarchal motherhood.