Reviewing the experiences of maternal guilt – the “Motherhood Myth” influence

Abstract

Maternal guilt has been a longstanding concern for mothers in the Western world. Literature around mother’s experiences of maternal guilt has allowed researchers to understand maternal guilt from a mother’s perspective. In this paper the authors aimed to systematically review this literature, to declare a more unified understanding of what the experience of maternal guilt is, from a mother’s perspective, and what role the “motherhood myth” has in maternal experiences of guilt. Our thematic analysis found the following themes relating to maternal guilt experiences: the motherhood myth, breastfeeding difficulties, essentialism/responsibility, division/depletion and connection. The motherhood myth was present in all the included articles, providing an unattainable ideal of motherhood from which mothers compare themselves and their actions to, contributing to their sense of maternal guilt. Mothers experienced many difficulties in their mothering roles, including difficulty breastfeeding, feeling a great sense of responsibility to their child, feeling divided in wanting to take time for themselves and depleted in having many tasks to complete and coping with a multitude of emotions, and feeling a profound sense of connection to their child(ren), which was experienced as both positive and negative.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge and thank Sam Rannard (JCU Librarian), the reviewers who reviewed previous drafts and made thoughtful suggestions, and co-authors who supported the development of ideas and drafts. I would also like to thank my family who both inspired and supported this research project.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest has been declared.

Figure A1. Summary of Included Studies.