'I can't be this, you know, ideal mum': An investigation into the discursive construction of first-time motherhood

This thesis reports the findings of a sociolinguistic investigation into how six women negotiated the transition to first-time motherhood and the role that language played in this transition. Despite the ubiquity of the social identity of ‘the mother’, little sociolinguistic research has been dedicated to the analysis of how speakers performatively enact this identity position. I take a sociocultural linguistic approach to the relationship between language and identity in order to answer the central question of this thesis: how do hegemonic discourses of motherhood affect women’s experience of motherhood and the linguistic enactment of a mother identity position?
My analysis focuses on how women negotiate their place in relation to three hegemonic discourses of motherhood which were pertinent to the women in this study: ‘natural birth’, ‘breast is best’ and ‘child-centeredness’. Through a stance analysis of the women’s talk about motherhood, I reveal some of the tensions and conflicts inherent in contemporary hegemonic discourses of motherhood, which are potentially damaging to women. Through interactional analysis of key extracts, I investigate how the women in my study manage these tensions and I demonstrate the complex labour that underpins the enactment of a ‘socially acceptable’ mother identity position. In doing so, I further problematise the ideological notion that becoming a mother is a ‘natural’ process.