Chapter 12: Commentary Rupture and Maintaining of the Transition to Motherhood

The topic of this volume is “Making Meaning, Making Motherhood.” The three articles written by Bastos, Carvalho, and Medrado (2015), Pontes (2015), and Dazzani and Ristum (2015), address this theme. However, these articles deal with a specific focus—how women as mothers suffered through severe situations such as early loss of a child, recurrent gestational losses, and immigration. How did the women face these situations and struggle against the problems whose essential causes were beyond their control? They had to have thought repeatedly about what “being a mother” or “motherhood” means in each phase when the problematic issues advanced and they made new meanings to overcome the problems. The processes can be considered as dialogue to the selves and to others. The three articles provide an opportunity to discuss the fundamental question of what is “being a mother” through reliving these processes. This chapter discusses the transition to motherhood from the viewpoints of change and maintenance of dialogical self (Hermans, 2001; Valsiner, 2007).