Other than mother and mothers as others: The experience of motherhood and non-motherhood in relation to 'infertility' and 'involuntary childlessness'

In this article I draw on the data from a recently completed research project within which I was concerned with exploring the social, emotion, and medical experience of 'infertility' and 'involuntary childlessness' (predominantly women's). Here I am concerned particularly with the status and experience of non-motherhood and of motherhood achieved following 'infertility'/'involuntary childlessness'. I suggest that non-mothers often feel stigmatised and perceive that others view them as less than whole, pitiable and "desperate" even though they often do not feel this way themselves. Women who achieve motherhood following 'infertility'/'involuntary childlessness' (particularly social rather than biological motherhood) still feel that they do not meet the ideal. All of this leads me to suggest that both non-mothers and women who achieve motherhood in an unusual way can be seen as the "other," as "stranger." (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.