Examines four locations wherin motherhood is simultaneously experienced as a site of oppression and of power: emodiment, representation, practice, and separation. Motherhood includes psychological, historical, sociological, literary, and cultural approaches to inquiry and a wide range of disciplinary perspectives.

1. Introduction - Andrea O'Reilly and Marie PorterEmbodiment2. The Kindest Cut? The Caesarean Section as Turning Point, Australia 1880-1900 - Lisa Featherstone3. Narrating Breasts: Constructions of Contemporary Motherhood(s) in Women's Breastfeeding Stories - Susanne Gannon and Babbette Muller-Rockstroh4. Scandalous Practices and Political Performances: Breastfeeding in the City - Alison BartlettRepresentation5. ""Pax Materna"" or Mothers at War with the Empire? Canadian and Australian Perspectives on the Motherhood Debate in the British Empire during the Great War - Karin Ikas6. Mothering and Stress Discourses: A Deconstruction of the Interrelationship of Discourses on Mothering and Stress - Erika Horwitz and Bonitaq C. Long7. A Lesser Woman? Fictional Representations of the Childless Woman - Enza Gandolfo8. (Mis)Conceptions: The Paradox of Maternal Power and Loss in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Paradise - Andrea O'Reilly9. Human and Divine Mothers in Hinduism - Tamara DitrichPractices10. Resistance Narratives from Mothers of Married Daughters in Singapore - Hing Ai Yun11. Survival Narratives of Ethiopian-Jewish Mothers and Daughters in Israel - Ruby Newman12. Down Under Power? Australian Mothering Experiences in the 1950s, 1960s - Marie Porter13. Mothers at Home: Oppressed or Oppressors or Victims of False Dichotomies? - Elizabeth Reid Boyd14. Mothers at the Margins: Singular Identities and Survival - Patricia ShortSeparation15. Naming Maternal Alienation - Anne Morris16. Women of Courage: The Non-Custodial Mother - Julie Thacker17. Abandoning Mothers and Their Children - Anita Pavlovic, Audrey Mullender, and Rosemary Aris18. When Eve left the Garden: A Modern Tale about Mothers Who Leave Their Families - Petra Buskens19. Conclusion: Reflections on Motherhood - Patricia Short