Abstract:Intensive parenting debates reflect the critical importance of a child's early years, and parents' roles in determining later developmental outcomes. Mothers are usually assigned primary responsibility for facilitating their infants' cognitive development through adequate and appropriate sensory stimulation. Drawing on Foucault's technologies of the self we explore how new mothers shape their mothering practices in order to provide appropriately stimulating interactions. Using findings from 64 interviews (31 women were interviewed twice, 2 women were interviewed only once) we identify three main positions whereby mothers function in relation to their infants' development; mother as committed facilitator, creative provider and careful/caring monitor. We consider the perceived normative nature of these positions and the impact they can have on middle-class women's subjectivities as new mothers. Our study of parental agendas and infant cognitive development suggests that a continued focus on the mother's role within early infant development reflects and upholds ideologies of child-centred, intensive mothering, which risks precluding 'alternative' maternal subjectivities and promotes conservative feminine identities.

In this piece, I reflect on the current model of motherhood that prevails in Western countries, often termed ‘intensive mothering'. I will briefly trace the history of this approach, focusing in particular on how theory from developmental psychology has, to some extent, functioned to reinforce it by foregrounding the mother–child dyad and emphasizing the importance of maternal practices for children's developmental outcomes. I will then consider the particular implications of this cultural approach to motherhood for women's experiences of motherhood and maternal wellbeing. Finally, I reiterate that we need to continue to challenge this western-centric model of motherhood, which risks both isolating and overburdening women, by highlighting the ways in which both women and children benefit from wider social support systems, yet also by making it permissible for women to access social support without compromising a ‘good mother' identity. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal–child health'.

This paper outlines a qualitative methodological approach called Critical Discursive Psychology (CDP), considering its applicability to health psychology research. As applied to health psychology, the growth of discursive methodologies within the discipline tends to be located within a critical health psychology approach where CDP and others enable a consideration of how wider societal discourses shape understandings and experiences of health and illness. Despite the increasing usage of CDP as a methodology, little has been written on the practical application of the method to date, with papers instead focusing on the theoretical underpinnings of a CDP approach. This paper seeks to address that gap and offers a step by step guide to the key principles and analytic stages of CDP before giving a worked example of CDP applied to a health topic, in this case 'baby-led weaning' (BLW). As we discuss, a key strength of CDP, particularly in relation to health psychology, is in its attempts to understand both macro and micro levels of data analysis. By doing so it offers a nuanced and richer understanding of how particular health topics are working within context. Therefore, CDP is a readily applicable analytic approach to contested and complicated topic areas within health research.

Citation: Budds K, Locke A and Burr V (2016) "For some people it isn't a choice, it's just how it happens": Accounts of 'delayed' motherhood among middle-class women in the UK. Feminism and Psychology. 26(2): 170-187. Copyright statement: © 2016The Authors. Full-text reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.Article "For some people it isn't a choice, it's just how it happens": Accounts of 'delayed' motherhood among middle-class women in the UK. Kirsty BuddsSchool of Psychology, Keele University, UK Abigail LockeFaculty of Social Sciences, University of Bradford, UK Vivien Burr School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield, UK AbstractOver the past few decades the number of women having their first babies over the age of 35 in the United Kingdom (UK) has increased. Women's timing of motherhood is invariably bound up with a discourse of 'choice' and in this paper we consider the role choice plays in the timing of motherhood among women who have been defined as 'older' mothers. This article is based on data from 11 semi-structured interviews that explored the transition to motherhood among 'older' middle-class mothers. The interviews were analysed using critical discursive psychology. The women drew upon two dominant repertoires when making sense of their timing of motherhood. Within the first repertoire, 'older motherhood as circumstance', older motherhood was presented as the outcome of life circumstances beyond their control, with a lack of the 'right' circumstances facilitating 'delayed' motherhood. Within the second repertoire, 'older motherhood as readiness', women constructed themselves as (now) prepared for motherhood. 'Readiness' was bound up with notions of self-fulfillment, yet also assessments of their ability to be 'good' mothers. We conclude that, far from a straightforward choice, the timing of motherhood is shaped by cultural definitions of the 'right' circumstances for parenthood, but also cultural definitions of 'good' motherhood, which may define when women are 'ready'.

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