Motherhood, stress and the exercise experience: freedom or constraint?

Abstract

Lack of leisure and time to self have been found to be major stressors for mothers. This paper examines perceived stress‐relieving benefits gained from involvement in a 12 week exercise class program by a group of mothers (n = 30, x̄ age = 37.3 years). Qualitative data indicated that exercise classes had the capacity to reduce perceived stress levels. The exercising mothers reported greater feelings of well‐being mainly due to gaining a space of their own, time‐out from busy schedules and the burden of childcare, and the feeling of doing something to improve their physical appearance. The negative or constraining aspects of exercise class participation included normalisation and self examination of women's bodies, and self‐surveillance rather than freedom of choice. The conclusions of this paper suggest that exercise classes can provide one avenue for mothers to take more control over their own health and lifestyle.

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge project supervision provided by Dr Betsy Wearing, former Visiting Professor of the School of Social Work, University of New South Wales, Australia.

Notes

Correspondence Address: Janet Currie, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, 40 Edward Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia. Email: [email protected]; fax: + 61 2 9739 2342

In this paper, the term ‘working mothers’ refers to women who carry out paid and/or unpaid work who are also mothers. This is to reflect the valid nature of work conducted in the home, and the fact that women wish to have their legitimate efforts recognised by society. All mothers work, however, for ease of reference, paid work will be noted as ‘employment’ or ‘outside’ work.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

JANET CURRIE

Correspondence Address: Janet Currie, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, 40 Edward Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia. Email: [email protected]; fax: + 61 2 9739 2342