Drawing on qualitative interviews with forty middle-class mothers living in Northern Ireland and the US, this book explores the strategies women adopt, as they take on and creatively re-make motherhood in ways which allow them to cope.

Acknowledgements Introduction Modernity, Normativity and Recognition Motherhood's Normativity Authentic Motherhood: Expressive Individualism Choosing Motherhood: Rational Planning Balancing Acts: Maternal Pragmatism Conclusion Notes Appendix 1: Participant Information References Index

LISA SMYTH Lecturer in Sociology at Queen's University Belfast, UK, and has also been a visiting professor at San Diego State University's Department of Women's Studies, USA. She works on issues of gender, reproduction and social change. She has previously published Abortion and Nation.