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Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Vol. 10, No. 4, 225-243 (1991)
DOI: 10.1177/0261927X91104001

Conceiving Selves: A Case Study of Changing Identities during the Transition to Motherhood

Jonathan Smith

Psychology Department, University of Keele, Keele, ST5 5BG

This qualitative study follows one woman through her pregnancy and transition to motherhood, and is concerned with the changes which occur in her accounts of identity. The study has a dual focus: on the changing identity of the woman herself as she becomes a mother, and on the simultaneous construction of an identity for the growing foetus. The complex and ambiguous nature of the process is highlighted, for example, in the woman's move towards self-containment as well as engagement with key others. Consistent with a phenomenological approach, the woman's account is prioritised in the study. Only after a close reading of her account is the material theorised in relation to the existing literature, particularly Mead's notion of a symbiotic or relational self. Finally a deconstructionist reading of some of the material in the case is provided.


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