Chapter 21: Ambivalences in the Transition to Motherhood: The Arrival of an Intersexual Baby¹

The child comes to the world surrounded by expectations and meanings concerning his/her existence. The birth of a child strengthens two fundamental dimensions of human life: (1) the macro aspect—the perpetuation of the species, and (2) the micro aspect—the strengthening of the family. Motherhood has gone through an intense process of transformation throughout history. The universality of motherhood has been questioned and assertions stressing the subjective specificities of this phenomenon have been strengthened. Today, motherhood is treated in certain scientific ambits as an exclusively existential and personal event, as aspects related to culture and society are neglected.

Giving birth to an intersex child—a baby born with both male and female characteristics—unlike regular social patterns of normality, gives rise to a feeling of strangeness. New meanings are built in order to handle the unknown. Motherhood in this peculiar condition faces the need to define the child’s social sex. An extra challenge is imposed on the family. Besides taking care of the child, the family—with the help of health care professionals—now has to “choose” the child’s sex. Under these circumstances, the process of becoming a mother is explicitly surrounded by an atmosphere of ambivalences. These ambivalences coexist and articulate family and biomedical fields, generating new meanings about the phenomenon of intersexuality.