This Is A Good Mother.

Are We Allowed to Ask If Maternal Factors Alone Explain Certain Psychiatric Disorders?

I’m not interested in what’s most affirming for mothers. I’m interested in what protects children. In my experience, by the time they reach the clinic as young adults, the prognosis is often poor. They are condemned to years of healing work for wounds that could have been prevented with clearer expectations and standards of care. But our cultural narratives resist this kind of prevention, because it would mean placing limits on women's pursuit of self-fulfilment.

How Motherhood Was Reframed

This is clearly reflected in a 2022 meta-analysis reviewing two decades of research on motherhood. It identifies five categories of mothers that women typically fall into: the ever-present mother, the future-oriented mother, the working mother, the public mother, and the happy mother. Yet, these types are defined without mentioning children’s needs, only by how well women reconcile motherhood with external pressures and personal identity.

The language is drenched in progressive jargon. Motherhood is p…