Eating the afterbirth: An exploration of the myth of motherhood

Abstract

This research report consists of two parts: a theoretical introduction and a creative project. In the theoretical introduction I have examined various pregnancy and child-care manuals together with popular literature in an attempt to explore some of the representations of motherhood. The areas I touched on include: pregnancy, labour pain, natural birth, breastfeeding, postnatal depression, working mothers and child care. The creative project incorporates all these different facets of motherhood and consists of two chapters of a novel written in the popular form referred to as “chick lit”.