Mask of Motherhood

How mothering changes everything and why we pretend it doesn't.

When a woman becomes a mother, her relationships, her professional identity and her sense of self will never be the same again. The presence of children does not simply add to the lives of parents, it transforms those lives completely. The precise nature of this transformation remains one of the best kept secrets of contemporary adult life, shrouded in a conspiracy of silence.

For expectant mothers - whether that expectation is imminent or distant - The Mask of Motherhood provides a backstage look at the realities of contemporary mothering, from pregnancy and childbirth to the juggling act we all call 'working motherhood'.

For women on the other side of the Great Divide of parenting, especially those currently involved in mothering young children, this book offers the comfort that comes from learning one is not alone. That the fears, frustrations and confusions of early motherhood are not evidence of personal failure, but of a host of unworkable structures, extravagant expectations and conflicting demands.

"The journey into motherhood is an odyssey of epic proportions, and every woman who undertakes it a hero. Celebrating our role at the very core of humanity means learning to sing every line of that epic freely, the lamentations along with the hymns.... What lies beneath the brave and brittle face of motherhood is a countenance of infinite expressiveness, a body of deepest knowing."

Random House Australia
Author: Susan Maushart
ISBN: 1741665345
RRP: $24.95

Review:
Down to earth look at Motherhood and the pressures & choices that shape the entire family unit.

Please also read the article on Fashionable Maternity Clothes.