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Delayed Motherhood : A Case Study

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Title: Delayed Motherhood : A Case Study


1
Delayed Motherhood A Case Study
  • Sharon Bryant

2
Introduction
  • But I still believe that the unexamined life is
    not worth living (Balwin, 1954). Using
    case-study as a method, allows the researcher the
    opportunity to analyze an individuals life in
    order to make generalizations to cases of the
    same type (Reinharz, 1992). In this case study,
    the author interviews a forty-one year woman to
    discover the pathways that led her to postpone
    motherhood.

3
Introduction
  • Women, especially those who pursue professional
    careers in which graduate education is a
    requirement, delayed the age at which they may
    become a mother. The number of first time
    mothers aged 40 and older are rapidly increasing
    (National Vital Statistics Report vol. 50, no. 5,
    February 12, 2002). This case study explores how
    one African American woman accounts for delaying
    motherhood.

4
Dreams of Motherhood
  • Anna Cooke was born in 1962 and some of her
    earliest memories are playing mother to her
    dolls. As the oldest of two children, she often
    mothered her younger sister. Anna said that
    mothering others was always an aspect of her
    relationship with others.

5
Dreams of Motherhood
  • Another one of Annas earliest memories was
    looking at wedding magazines and imagining her
    wedding. She daydreamed about wearing an
    elaborate white gown with a veil. Her children
    would be born after she got married. This
    illustrates how her familys Christian religious
    values reinforced that motherhood was legitimized
    only in marriage. Thus one did not engage in sex
    before marriage because children should only be
    born in marital relationship.

6
College Got in the Way
  • Going to college interrupted her desire to get
    married and have children. She attended a
    Historically Black College with the goal of
    becoming a social worker. One of her freshman
    professors, encouraged her to consider earning a
    doctorate in sociology. Beginning second
    semester freshman year, she focused her entire
    attention on earning good grades to ensure
    acceptance into graduate school. For example,
    she did not pledge a sorority because her
    professor did not want the possibility of her
    grades declining.

7
Dreams of the Being the Perfect Mother Got in the
Way
  • Annas Christian upbringing only allowed her to
    view sexuality and motherhood occurring within
    marriage. When she began to consider postponing
    marriage until after graduate school, she gave
    her self permission to have a sexual relationship
    with a man that she loved.

8
Serial Monogamy 1
  • Anna did not date until she went to college.
    She was considered a good girl and a good
    girls should have their minds books and not on
    boys. She met her first boyfriend when she was a
    sophomore and he was senior at a nearby college.
    After dating for one year, they had sexual
    intercourse.

9
First Abortion
  • The outcome of her first sexual experience was
    getting pregnant. She could not imagine being a
    single parentnor could she imagine marrying her
    boyfriend. Moreover, Anna could not imagine
    coming home to her parents pregnant. Her
    boyfriend was not ready to become a father so he
    supported her decision to have an abortion. Anna
    paid for her abortion from her work-study
    earnings since her boyfriend did not have any
    money.

10
Single Mothers Shunned at College
  • During her sophomore year, a popular student in
    her class got pregnant by her equally popular
    boyfriend who was a basketball player. She
    watched her being shunned by her boyfriend who
    soon broke up with her. In addition her sorority
    sisters also shunned her as she went to class
    pregnant.

11
Terrified of Single Motherhood
  • She was terrified telling her parents that she
    was pregnant and of having a child born outside
    of marriage. Annas father was born outside of
    marriage and he had a very difficult childhood
    because his father did not acknowledge him. Many
    of her friends who did not have a father present
    in their lives seemed to suffer from father-loss.
    She did not want to bring a child into the world
    that could also suffer from father-loss.

12
Mothering as Sacrifice
  • Anna images of motherhood was that women made
    many sacrifices for their children. It seemed as
    if being a mother could interfere with a woman
    having a satisfying personal and professional
    life. She felt that her mothers life revolved
    around meeting the needs of her daughters and
    often not getting her needs met. Anna believe
    that if her mother did not have children she
    would have made different choices in her life.

13
Attending Graduate School
  • Anna applied to several graduate schools and
    decided to pursue her doctorate at an ivy league
    university. Anna was the first one in her family
    to decide to earn a doctorate degree. The desire
    to finish her graduate education in five years
    required that she postpone marriage and children
    for a few more years. She felt that having a
    child in graduate school would impede her ability
    to graduate in a timely fashion.

14
Serial Monogamy 2
  • Anna eventually began dating another graduate
    student. During the third year of that
    relationship, she became pregnant while taking
    birth control pills. Her boyfriend wanted to get
    married and to have the child because he was
    graduating in the spring and he had a prospective
    job in which he would earn enough to take care of
    a family.

15
Was Not Living Up to My Expectations
  • Anna was terrified of leaving graduate school
    without completing her degree. She thought that
    becoming a wife and mother would interfere with
    finishing her doctorate especially since she
    would be living on the west coast. She could not
    imagine finishing a dissertation with an infant
    and communicating with her dissertation committee
    by telephone and by mail. Anna decided that she
    must abort this child and postpone getting
    married.

16
Second Abortion
  • Annas boyfriend supported her decision to have
    an abortion although he disagreed with her. This
    time, the student health insurance paid for the
    abortion on campus. Her boyfriend stayed with
    her during the abortion and he took care of her
    as she recovered.. Their relationship survive
    the abortion and they maintained a long distance
    relationship until she completed her
    dissertation.

17
Beginning a Professional Career
  • After graduate school, she completed a two-year
    postdoctoral and began her first professional job
    at a large health-related organization. During
    her first month on the job she discovered that
    she was pregnant again while using a diaphragm as
    a method of birth control. Anna was terrified of
    failing herself again especially since she had
    just started her first professional job.

18
Third Abortion
  • Moreover, she began to realized that her
    relationship was not strong enough to parent a
    child with him. This time her boyfriend did not
    want to be a father and she was also ambivalent.
    They decided to have an abortion. Their
    relationship soon ended and Anna decided that
    she was never going to have children nor was she
    going to get married. She would focus all of her
    attention on meeting her professional goals.

19
Trying to Earn Tenure
  • Anna accepted a tenure track position at a state
    university. She decided to put her personal life
    on hold while she conducted research and wrote
    research papers to meet the requirements for
    tenure. After earning tenure, she began
    questioning her single-minded pursuit of her
    professional goals without focusing attention of
    her personal life goals.

20
Conclusion
  • In her late thirties, Anna began yearning to
    have a child but realized that she was not in
    the position to make that dream come true. She
    decided to marry the man that she had been in a
    long distance dating for many years. Anna
    realized that she might have postpone motherhood
    to long. She was now in her forties and it may
    be too late to become a mother.

21
Conclusion
  • Many professional women sacrifice becoming a
    mother and fulfilling their personal goals
    because they single-mindedly focus on attaining
    their professional goals during their optimal
    childbearing years. Anna believes that women
    have to plan to meet their personal goals just
    like they plan to meet their professional goals
    in order to balance their professional and
    personal lives.

22
References
  • Baldwin, J. (1954). Go tell it on the mountain.
    James Baldwin. New York  Grosset Dunlap.
  • National Vital Statistics Report vol. 50, no. 5,
    February 12, 2002
  • Reinharz, S. (1992). Feminist methods in social
    research. New York Oxford University Press.
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