"I become": a subjective and intersubjective experience of first time motherhood

Abstract

This thesis is about first time motherhood. It is an in depth narrative study examining the purposive, agentive formation of motherhood, in particular studying the subjective and intersubjective experiences that construct a maternal identity and the potential that this offers in transforming selves. Theoretical approaches such as Winnicott's subjective self, Merleau-Ponty's relational self, Benjamin's relational mother and baby, Connell's gender theory, Kristeva and Grosz's embodiment have been used to illuminate the way the maternal self is constituted, maintained and narrated over pregnancy and in the first four months after birth.