Constructions of Pregnant and Postnatal Embodiment across Three Generations Mothers', Daughters' and Others' Experiences of the Transition to Motherhood

The academic study of the 'body' has come to occupy the foreground over the past two decades and the differential influences of physical and social worlds particularly upon body management practices have become fundamental to the 21st-century 'project' of the body. In this article we explore three generations of women's accounts of living in/with a pregnant and postnatal body which is now both visible and 'public' as women 'leave' the home for work. However this now takes place in the context of public surveillance (and self-surveillance) particularly about food/eating, 'health' and 'beauty'.