No One Ever Talked About…”:The Postpartum Counter-Narrative to Society’s Master Narrative on New Mothering

ABSTRACT

In this study, we examine narratives to discover how new mothers narrate about the postpartum period if the experiences mirror that of the master narrative, and how new mothers make sense of postpartum anxiety. We explored 22 narratives collected between October 2019 and March 2020 for insights into how new mothers’ narratives complemented or refuted the master “good” mother narrative. Data were analyzed based on Tracy’s (2018) iterative process. While the master narrative of “good mother” was alluded to, new mothers’ discourse diverged and refuted the master narrative of how mothers should mother postpartum. New mothers say the lack of warning about the postpartum period impacts themselves, their bond with their babies, and their spousal relationships. As a result, new mothers highlighted how bingos and mom guilt caused their anxiousness. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Bingos
• mom guilt
• motherhood
• postpartum

Acknowledgments

The team would like to thank early reviewers of this piece for their feedback, as their comments helped create the manuscript you see before you. LeBlanc 1 would also like to say thanks to her colleagues who often said, “thank you for doing this work.”

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).