The Theme of Motherhood in John Irvings Works

John Irving, the author of the novels the Cider House Rule and A Widow for One Year focuses on the theme of motherhood through the description of the main characters. Children who experience parental negligence especially from their mothers are unable to make solid decisions in their lives.

Mother is the backbone of every family; consequently, children who grow up without mothers end up having tough times in adulthood, as it is the case in the two novels. Irving focuses on failed motherhood either before or after the birth of the children.

In the Cider House Rule, Homer Wells undergoes awful ordeals during his childhood which forces him into an Orphanage called St. Paul. Surprisingly, Homer comes to the orphanage when he is still an infant. He does not know his mothers whereabouts; he simply tries effortlessly to live with four foster families. While under foster care, Homer has never known how it feels to be happy.

Similarly, Ruth Cole does not have a happy childhood after the death of her two siblings; her mother neglects her parental duties. In addition, her parents have frequent fights, which lead to divorce. In the two cases, there is evident failed motherhood and the two kids; Homer and Ruth, experience this unfortunate failure.

Dr. Larch parents only tolerated to remain in marriage for the marriage was void of love. His mother does not care about her sons wellbeing; she is rarely at home, because her job is perhaps more important; her family more so her son comes second or third in her priorities. Interestingly, when her husband brings the young Larch a prostitute as a present for passing exams well, she does not object.

Ruth experiences the same neglect just like Larch; her mother does not love her and its not surprising when she eventually leaves Ruth under the care of her father. Regrettably, the issue of failed motherhood paints the picture of current parents who leave their children under the care of either teachers or house helps to pursue their dreams.

After growing to become a doctor, Dr. Larch bases his career on abortion; he simply lacks no respect for human life courtesy of poor parentage.

Talking of abortion, the author highlights the failure of some mothers, who respect not their unborn children; abortion to them I a common thing. Additionally, in Larchs neighborhood, most mothers are the oldest professionals in the world; prostitutes. Besides prostitution being unethical though controversial, the fruits are repugnant.

These professionals conceive children they cannot raise and thus abortion becomes the last resort; unfortunately, some mothers die in the process of abortion; what a piteous way of living. On the other hand, Ruth witnesses the painful death of a prostitute in one of the red districts; statistics and conventional knowledge attribute prostitutes to failed motherhood.

The comparative element in the novels is the theme of motherhood. In both books, the role of mother is in the society goes unfulfilled. Consequently, the main characters like Ruth, Larch and Homes are unable to make standing decisions in their lives due to poor motherhood.

Children need mothers guidance as they grow for life issues might be confounding even to the wise and children needs guidance to know what decisions to make under what situations. Irving goes further to highlight the detrimental effects children incur when parents neglect their duties and the product of the same.

In conclusion, conflicts from either marriage or poor relationship cause loss of life and heart breakage of the children. The two books comparatively highlight parenthood, especially motherhood and its significance in the society. Finally, Irving is able to enlighten the society about the expectations of a mother.

Non-Legal Aspects of Teenage Mothers’ Right to Education: Essay

There are several factors that are non-legal that either directly or indirectly impact the right to education for teenage mothers. However, that variance is premised on a regional basis; albeit that, there are several other ancillary notions that affect the same and they inter alia comprise poverty, illiteracy, low literacy levels, and any more. This essay will explore the veracity of each of the above-mentioned notions and how they impact on the right to education for teenage mothers as enunciated below.

Abortion

Simply defined, abortion refers to the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. According to Gillian Nantume and Dr. Dorothy Balaba, “A typical adolescent girl fears to tell anyone she is pregnant. Many of them are dying in the hands of quacks and we never get to know these girls” (monitor.co.ug). For example, in Uganda, the right to life is envisaged under Article 22(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. This provision espouses that no person has the right to terminate the life of an unborn child, except as may be authorized by law. This affects the right to education for teenage mothers since many girls in a young stage mostly those in urban areas, abort in the most unsafe ways and the biggest numbers end up dropping from school because of the inevitable challenges and hardships involved. Resultantly, the numbers of teenage mothers are alarming in rural areas as juxtaposed to Urban areas.

Lack of Maternal Skills

Maternal means of relating to, belonging to, or characteristic of a mother. Skill can be defined as the ability to do something well or expertise. The lack of maternal skills is perpetuated by age and non-exposure to the realities and other expectations at that time, hence the emergence of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, low self-efficacy, isolation, etc. Mental health is a person’s condition regarding their psychological and emotional well-being. This results due to the phobia of getting married. The surrounding stigma and the attitude accorded teenage mothers by society is appalling; because of their young age, they tend to feel out of place, leading to depression, anxiety, and isolation and tend to leave school because of all these factors. This makes the girls leave school and hence their right to education is denied.

Inadequate Social and Spiritual Support

Many teenage mothers face inadequate social and spiritual support since many people are criticizing and stigmatizing them because of getting pregnant before completing school. The Bible interdicts sexual immorality as is denoted in Ephesians 5:3, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, it is proper among saints. The religious leaders condone it and most of the time don’t offer teenage mothers any form of insulation or protection, and the society around them criticizes and ignores teenage mothers. However, this can be improved if teenage mothers are availed of the requisite support whether it is spiritual or social. And in cases where they are given support, it is inadequate since very few people will not criticize and ignore the teenage mothers, and because of this spiritual attitude and social criticism, teenage mothers leave school and go in hiding and most of the time even change their society because they cannot keep up with the shame. Carol Atukunda, the gender technical advisor in the Ministry of Education, advocates for girls to be given maternity leave. In her own words, she suggests that girls should be given maternity leave from the sixth month of pregnancy to go and prepare for childbirth. After one year, they can go back to school and continue with their studies. However, this opinion received a lot of criticism, for instance, Jonathan Oyako, a 60-year-old retired tutor, said that it is like you are giving them a reward for engaging in premarital sex. It is like you are saying it is okay to get pregnant. And he further said that, if you expel them, their peers will know that it is bad and they will not engage in sex. However, this is wrong since this is just done to the girls leaving the perpetrators, and both young people should know the price for their actions.

Influence of Peers

A peer is a person who is the same age or has the same social position or the same abilities as other people in a group. And influence means the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself. Teenage mothers get pregnant most of the time due to peer influence, and when they have produced and can now be termed as teenage mothers, they still have their agemates who advise them on getting jobs, let’s say as house helps. And this makes them lose out on their right to education thinking they think they can fend on their own for their children.

Financial Problems

Financial means of or relating to finance or finances; therefore, financial problems are defined as a situation where money worries are causing you to stress. This normally affects teenage mothers because they are normally left by the perpetrators to fend on their own, and even after giving both have to take on the responsibilities of both parents, this makes them leave school or put aside their right to education in the quest to fulfill their financial constraints. Annet Musiimenta is only 18 years old, but a mother of two boys aged 4 and 3. She said in her story that she fell pregnant and dropped out of school after her mother a widow decided she was better off married to the father of her child to secure her future. She however later left her sons in the care of her mother towards the end of last year bought a one-way bus ticket from Mbarara and found work as a housemaid around Mengo, a residential suburb of Kampala in the capital of Uganda. She says that life was unbearable as there was not much to eat and the man would come home drunk and sometimes beat her up, she also says that she does not regret leaving the husband’s home because she’s now earning money which she sends to the mother to look after children. This is one example among thousand others of girls being forced to get married once they get pregnant and then leaving their homes to go get money to feed and look after their children. This makes them neglect or leave out their right to education.

Family Conflicts

This refers to active opposition between family members. It can be a conflict within a couple or between parents and children, or again siblings. It can take a wide variety of forms, including verbal, physical, sexual, financial, or psychological. One of the popular definitions of conflict, offered by Coser, asserts that conflict is a struggle over values and claims to scarce status, power, and resources in which the aims of the opponents are to neutralize, injure or eliminate the rival. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a conflict to mean an active disagreement between opposing opinions or needs. Conflicts of whichsoever kind always leave families apart, whether it is between family members or outside people. These conflicts deny the teenage mothers a right to education because, among the family, there could be people leaning so much on religion and cultural beliefs, hence would not allow or advise the mothers to go back to school as they think it would be a shame the family, and because of this the teenage mothers right to education is denied.

Low Self-Esteem

Self-esteem means the belief and confidence in one’s own ability and value. There different types of esteem, there’s low self-esteem, inflated self-esteem, and high self-esteem. People with this type of esteem do not value themselves, they do not trust in their possibilities. And the insecurity they may be feeling may be carried over into almost every situation. Fear of failure is something that torments them and holds people with this type of esteem back. People with inflated self-esteem think that they are better than others and have no doubts about underestimating everyone else. It is a very negative self-esteem as it holds them back from establishing affectionate and healthy relationships. And people with high self-esteem value accept themselves, they are not driven to make themselves superior to others and do not seek to prove their value by measuring themselves against a comparative standard. Their joy is in being who they are, not in being better than someone else. As said by Nathaniel Burden, self-esteem has four elements:

  • Recognizing and accepting strengths. Each person has special abilities and traits. These strengths make an individual unique.
  • Creating a sense of belonging. Relationships that are established at home in the school or community help young people feel they are part of a group. The affiliation and satisfaction young people experience within groups contribute to feelings of security and support.
  • Developing a sense of power. Students who have a sense of power believe they have the ability to affect their own lives and the lives of others are made with this power, they are capable to take charge and make changes.
  • Having and imitating positive role models. Young people need standards to give direction and meaning to their lives. These standards are developed through experiences within family and peer groups with other people who are significant in their lives. When they emulate ideals such as honesty, dependability, and loyalty, young people become confident in their ability to distinguish between right and wrong.

Low self-esteem people tend to be hypersensitive; they have a fragile sense of self that can easily be wounded by others. They are hypervigilant and hyper-alert to signs of rejection, inadequacy, and rebuff.

Teenage mothers tend to develop low self-esteem because of the criticisms from people in different categories and their inner minds making them feel like they can no longer be able to do anything productive or beneficial to themselves. This esteem makes them feel out of place in society, and eventually, they cannot go back to school, even when given a chance, this leads to their right to education being denied. However, they can resolve this by not listening to their inner critic minds and standing up for their needs and benefits.

Low Educational and Ambition Goals

Ambition is defined as a strong desire to do or achieve something typically requiring determination and hard work. This happens when in a society people or girls fail to get anyone who inspires them to achieve any educational status. This is common in villages since most girls get married off at a young stage for wealth purposes, the ones who get educated never return or become so exposed that they depict nothing that one can imitate, and no one sees the difference between the educated and uneducated. This lack of goals and ambition makes girls leave school to do other things, among which getting married has the highest priority. And once they are married, they get pregnant, produce and they qualify to be teenage mothers. They chose to leave out their right to education for marriage and looking after their families.

Conclusion

Summing up, various non-legal aspects, as explained above, contribute to the denial of teenage mothers’ right to education, so these aspects should be given much attention and care to ensure that teenage mothers’ right to education is promoted.

Theme of Motherhood in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Play ‘The Love of the Nightingale’ and Sarah Kane’s Play ‘Phaedra’s Love’: ‘: Critical Essay

This statement regarding the regress of maternal instincts that are perceived as ‘normal’ can be discussed in reference to Timberlake Wertenbaker’s ‘The Love of the Nightingale’ (1988) and Sarah Kane’s ‘Phaedra’s Love’ (1996). Both postmodern plays were written after the 1950s, and with the use of reference to Greek mythology, perpetuate social and gender issues reflective of the time period in which they are set. Theo L. D’haen describes the postmodern genre as one that incudes “self-reflexiveness, metafiction, eclecticism, redundancy, multiplicity, discontinuity, intertextuality, parody, the erasure of boundaries, and the destabilization of the reader” (1997, p.91). In both plays, such an erasure of boundaries and destabilization of the reader occur, and this can be seen by looking at them both through the scope of motherhood and feminism. Both plays somewhat conform to traditional views surrounding motherhood, yet at the same time they stray form such ideals. Wertenbaker’s play is a radical feminist adaptation and reconstruction of the Greek Myth of Philomela and Procne, and works to explore themes of radical feminism and sisterhood, as well as motherhood, when Procne stands up against her husband Tereus and punishes him for abusing her sister with the use of their son, Itys. Additionally, Kane’s play is similarly based on a Greek myth, however, is centered around the Greek tragedy of Phaedra, which is a myth that also explores themes of motherhood in an unconventional manner, in which Phaedra begins to feel romantic and sexual feelings towards her stepson, Hippolytus, which is fundamentally far from the feelings a mother should feel towards her children/stepchildren. As both plays are adaptations of and are inspired by Greek mythology, some of the class and gender ideals they depict are very much reflective of the era and coincide with the original myths. That being said however, both plays eradicate the Athenian image of a mother and of a wife, portraying Procne and Phadra each in a very outlandish and unusual way, conveyed through how they treat their children as the plays progress.

Motherhood and feminism, whether that be in females conforming to patriarchal ideals, or fighting against it, both coincide with each other. In many patriarchal societies, mothering a child was perceived to be the role of a woman, that is, their bodies existed only to pleasure their husbands and birth their husband’s children. During and post 1950s, motherhood and being a mother were idolized and seen to be much greater than which it was due to the prosperity of the country after the Second World War. Due to new gadgets and there no longer being a necessity for women to go out and work, their home life was consequently ‘easier’, and they could simply focus on household chores and mothering their children. However, their lives had changed massively after the war, “they had less household help, were more aware of community concerns and politics, felt less emphasis on family relationships and a diminishment of autocratic family roles” (Fullerton, 2010, p.21). This means that it was very difficult for most women to just fall back into their outdated routine lives, existing purely to cook, clean and bear children, and more women wanted to do much more than this, and they were not allowed to do so, as they were inferior to men and only men were supposed to be the breadwinner and provide for their families. Though in Greek mythology, motherhood was usually conveyed by women who were self-sacrificing, passionate and all loving towards their children, they would do anything for them and even lay down their lives for them at times. In short, their primal maternal instinct would be to protect, and their role in society and life shouldn’t surpass this. At the time, many critics agree with the fact that there was an overwhelming need for the patriarchal society to mold and control the female experience, with the control of female reproductivity. Nancy Demand suggests that the most difficult thing for Greek women was to survive, they had to produce new members through the male line: this service of childbearing was the center of women’s lives. Simon De Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’ (1949) agrees, that for a woman, “she is for man a sexual partner, a reproducer, an erotic subject – an Other through whom he seeks himself” (p.90). Women in the Athenian era existed only to continue on the male line into future generations and lived only to be controlled by either their fathers or husbands all through their lives. According to Donovan, “De Beauvoir sees the female body as inherently alienating because it demands so much of women’s energy that it saps their potential for engaging in a creative pour-soi activity. Childbearing, childbirth, and menstruation are draining physical events that tie women to their bodies and to immanence” (2012, p.121). Feminism, therefore started to break away from such ideals about women and acknowledged the harsh ideals a patriarchal society demanded of a woman’s body and life, and so plays written after the 1950s started to exhibit a new type of resistance to this image of the perfect wife and the perfect mother.

A somewhat conventional motherhood in ‘The Love of the Nightingale’ is primarily portrayed through the character of the Queen mother. The Queen is in fact confirmative with gender norms present during Greek mythology and in the 1900s, that is being a spectator in the piece, detaching herself from outwardly issues and immersing herself in public appearances, performance and duty. In the same manner, she silences her daughters: “Procne: ‘Mother’. Queen: ‘What can I say?’. Philomele: ‘Can I go with her?’. Queen: ‘Quiet, child’” (3.295-6). The audience, like the Queen, has no power over the play’s outcome, and her character embodies this on stage. The Queen is another female character who, like her daughter, has no voice and also watches ‘Medea’. She perceives catastrophe, like the audience, but is powerless to intervene; she is a spectator throughout the play, disconnected from reality. Despite her attempts to be an authoritative mother and silence her daughter, she does not need to be silenced herself because she is unable to exert any impact on the play’s male characters. Marianne McDonald attests to this, in that the Queen has to “cede to King Pandion on every issue… she is not even consulted about the plans made for Philomele, the King is named, and the Queen is unnamed – typical of Athenian practice in which a woman was not named in legal proceedings, she is identified by her relation to the immediate male who has power over her” (1994). As a wife, she abides by societal norms, to be ‘seen and not heard’ so to speak. However, regarding the Queen as a mother, it is questionable as to whether she fulfils the role and possesses any sort of normative maternal instincts. In short, the maternal instinct to protect your children, and support them, and this isn’t particularly perceived in the character of the Queen. During this section of Scene 3, she simply stands back, purely spectates and silences her daughters when they attempt to speak up. Though, the question stands: is she powerless or willfully inactive? In terms of Athenian standards, she is the perfect image of a wife and a Queen as a woman, due to her being a silent spectator who never challenges what her husband the King says. However, when it comes to being a mother, she neglects the protective and sacrificing maternal instincts she should possess, as she doesn’t support her daughters’ opinions and wishes, and instead stifles them in order to keep the King pleased and maintain her image in society.

When it comes to Phaedra, at the start of ‘Phaedra’s Love, she also attempts to conform to her role in society as a royal’s wife, and even though she is only Hippolytus’ stepmother, she appears to care for his well-being and have motherly boundaries with him. She says: “I’m his stepmother. We are Royal” (2.66), and then “I’m married to his father” (2.67), when asked by a doctor if she is in love with her stepson, which holds implications of her keeping a boundary intact with Hippolytus, while also accepting her role in society. Federica Clementi attests to this, stating that “the process of identity creation works the other way around as well, not only she builds the image of devoted wife and mother for herself, she also highlights Hippolytus’s role of loved prince and son, creating the illusion of a healthy, although exclusive, relationship between them” (2020, p.55). She goes on to tell the doctor: “I think my son is ill. I think you should help” (2.67), which also adds to the image of her being a caring stepmother who is simply concerned about her stepson’s well-being, nothing more. However, that image quickly fades, and the real premise of Phaedra’s ‘maternal’ concern is brought to light.

Shortly after the beginning of the play, when Phaedra expresses her concerns for her stepson to the doctor, does she expose her true feelings for Hippolytus to her daughter Strophe with the use of metaphors and symbolism. In Scene 3, she expresses her pain over this twisted sort of one-side love, prohibited love, by telling Strophe, “There’s a thing between us, an awesome fucking thing, can you feel it? It burns. Meant to be. We were. Meant to be”, and when Strophe replies “This isn’t healthy, Phaedra says “He’s not my son” (3.71). Fundamentally, any sort of motherly bond Phaedra was trying to somewhat force with Hippolytus is dissipated in an instant with this confession. In Scene 4, Phaedra goes on to confess to Hippolytus directly: “Phaedra: ‘I love you’. Silence. Hippolytus: ‘Why?’. Phaedra: ‘You’re difficult. Moody, cynical, bitter, fat, decadent, spoilt…you’re in pain. I adore you’” (4.79). Straight away it is evident that Phaedra does not think of Hippolytus as a mother would think of her son, and any maternal instincts she may have had have begun to merge with the lust and longing she has for him into a twisted kind of ‘love’. After this, when Phaedra performs a sexual act on Hippolytus, and this consolidates the fact that this play is a clear resistance to motherly idealistic expectations during this time period. When Hippolytus pays no mind to her confession and sexual advances, nor does he reciprocate her feelings, this therefore causes Phaedra ultimate devastation and heartbreak, resulting in her hanging herself all while leaving a note stating that it was Hippolytus that had raped her and drove her to death. Hippolytus asks “What happened?”, and Strophe replies “Hung. Note saying you raped her”, and to this Hippolytus says “She shouldn’t have taken it so seriously” (6.90). This therefore implies that Phaedra had no maternal instincts towards Hippolytus in terms of the ideal to protect and be self-sacrificing for one’s child, as was usual in Greek tragedy. Instead, she advanced on her stepson, and when he didn’t return her feelings, she ended her own life and framed Hippolytus for a horrific crime.

Another instance in which Phaedra’s motherly instincts are abandoned is when she speaks with her actual daughter Strophe: “Strophe: ‘Mother’. Phaedra: ‘Go away fuck off, don’t touch me, don’t talk to me. stay with me’” (3.69). Ultimately, Phaedra attempts to break away from the limitations of motherhood even with her own daughter by brushing her off with the ‘fuck off’, but then recognizes her customary position in society as postulated by psychoanalytical discourses within a few brief sentences when she says, ‘stay with me’. But ultimately, as Phaedra kills herself as a result of her love and her body being ridiculed by Hippolytus, she is neglecting her daughter and leaving her to fend for herself against her stepfather and stepbrother.

Near the end of the play, when Strophe is in disguise along with Hippolytus, Strophe warns the crowd not to hurt Hippolytus, and as a result Theseus seizes her and rapes her in front of everyone, consuming her body savagely, and then murders her on the spot. Strophe therefore, ends up paying a high price for defying patriarchal authority, she pays such a price due to the fact that she did not have her mother there to protect her as a mother should have.

Procne as a mother in ‘The Love of the Nightingale’ poses similarity to Phaedra, that is regarding the manner in which she loses her maternal instincts for her child as the play progresses. After Procne is made aware that her husband Tereus had raped her sister and cut out her tongue, she allows Philomele to kill Itys, her son. In Scene 20, “Itys goes for Philomele. Procne holds him. Philomele still has the sword. Philomele brings the sword down on his neck” (20. 350), thus killing him. Ultimately, it can be argued that Procne values sisterhood and a need to take revenge on the man that betrayed them over motherhood and the need to protect her child. This is viewed by some as an act of radical feminism, a way for the sisters to fight back against the dominant patriarchy of the time in which they live. Andrew Feldherr suggests that “Procne here faces the familiar tragic dilemma of deciding who she is, mother or sister”. What is most important, though is “in looking at the figure of her son, she stresses a seen likeness to his father against the likeness to herself” (201). This is what causes her to prioritize sisterhood and abandon her sense of motherhood towards Itys. Perhaps, it can be argued that such radical feminism that is portrayed in the play is what impacts Procne’s maternal instincts and how she decides to treat her child. When Tereus took control over Philomele’s body by raping her and cutting her tongue, Procne avenges her sister by taking control of what her body created and allowing her son to be killed. The irony in this lies in that fact that Itys is male. It is something that can be questioned, is Procne taking revenge on only Tereus or perhaps is she fighting back the male gender as a whole? The gender which prioritizes its needs and its discourse in order to push women’s discourse down the ladder. The gender that excuses men’s awful actions such as rape and violence as normal due to the fact that women are simply property that belong to men and don’t deserve any rights. In order to carry out this revenge, Procne abandons her sense of motherhood and any sort of maternal love she had for Itys and allows him to be killed. Nursen Gomceli agrees that Procne killing Itys and disregarding her role as a mother is a radical form of rebellion, it suggests that Procne lo longer obeys the rules of patriarchy, also revealed when she tells Tereus: “I obeyed all rules: the rule of parents, the rule of marriage, the rules of my loneliness, you” (20. 47). Additionally, since a child represents the future, the slaughter of Itys can also be interpreted as the destruction of the future of patriarchy (2009, p.92). Near the end of the play when Itys’ body is revealed: “Procne: ‘If you bend over the stream and search for your reflection, Tereus, this is what it looks like’. Tereus: ‘Your own child!’. Procne: ‘Ours. There are no more rules. There is nothing. The world is bleak. The past a mockery, the future dead. And now I want to die’” (20. 335-340). Procne is telling Tereus that he himself was responsible for the death of their son, and so “forces [him] to confront his own guilt” (Winston, 1995, p.515). Her words here work to not only blame Tereus for what occurred, but mostly to consolidate the notion that she is fighting back against the dominant patriarchal system, and with the killing of her son, disregards the systems expectations that women belong under men, and removes the next generation that will carry on enforcing this.

To conclude, many critics agree that plays written during and after the 1950s do in fact pose a resistance to the traditional traits that a mother was expected to possess, that is in the maternal instinct to care for, love and protect one’s child. It would be wrong to disagree to the statement, even though there are instances and/or characters that do conform to the normative ideals of a mother, it is abundantly clear that the protagonists in these two plays who are mothers commit acts that are far from what a mother would do, that is, committing murder and performing sexual acts. The primary theme in each play is about being silenced, and in both instances the female characters are being silenced by men, and Kane and Wertenbaker challenge this as they integrated feminism into both Procne and Phaedra, allowing them abandon motherly nature and take revenge on the men that wronged them. Phaedra takes revenge on Hippolytus by accusing him of rape and the assisted murder of herself, whereas Procne avenges her sister by allowing her son to be killed as a punishment for Tereus. Both Kane and Wertenbaker use the postmodern genre in order to retell traditional Greek myths in a way that does resist the normative ideals expected of a mother in the Athenian era, but essentially also uses it in order to explore themes of radical feminism, by allowing their female characters to challenge the confined patriarchal society in which they lived.

Representation of Motherhood within the Surrealist Movement: Critical Essay

In his ‘First Manifesto of Surrealism’, Andre Breton describes Surrealism as “a pure psychic automatism through which it is intended to express…the true functioning of thought”. Automatism is a technique experimented with by the Surrealists that stems from Freud’s work. The artist will suppress conscious control of the process of making the art, allowing the unconscious mind to take over, releasing the creative ideas from the imagination and determining the method of delivering the imagery.

The art of the movement aimed to create its visual imagery by accessing the unconscious mind, deferring from directed logic. Influenced by the work of Freud, the artists within the movement strived to liberate the irrational and release a form of subconscious creativity that was illogical, striking, provocative and dreamlike. Surrealism caused an emergence of ‘pure expression’, for often the works settings were unchanging in time or place. Motherwell makes the point that whilst the Abstractionists reduced “the content of the superego” to make it aesthetically pleasing, the Surrealists saw no value in the aesthetic features of their works. They were primarily comments on their current social or political situations, and then secondarily, aesthetic; linking the “banal of common places and the most astonishing poetic form”. Surrealist art was constantly revived and replenished. Many of the works were deliberately controversial and unconventional, often confronting subjects that were taboo at that time. Similar to Dadaism, works were designed to withhold the directness of the logic of the themes within in the painting. The rejection of authority from the external world forms “the Dada strand in the fabric of Surrealism”.

One subject much explored by Surrealist artists was the role of the female in motherhood. In fact, the Surrealists had an intrinsic revulsion of maternity and went so far as to advocate childlessness. By pursuing the mistress and ignoring the mother, they fooled themselves into believing that they could avoid what they found most threatening. This investigation will predominantly discuss the projection of the figures of the mother and child in three artists’ works: Joan Miro’s ‘Maternity’ (1924), Dorothea Tanning’s ‘Maternity’ (1946-1947), and Max Ernst’s ‘The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child Before Three Witnesses: Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, and the Painter’ (1926). In addressing the differences between Miro’s intentionally vague biomorphic imagery, Tanning’s alienating scene, and Ernst’s violent depiction of the Madonna and Child, this essay shall ascertain whether in these particular examples, the Surrealists offer a sympathetic light to the role of women as mothers.

Whilst nature was frequently used imagery, Salvador Dali’s works often included ants or eggs, and Max Ernst seemed obsessed with birds even having a bird alter ego, Joan Miro undertook a different approach, relying heavily on vague biomorphic imagery. The particular theme of maternity predominant in Miro’s named work of 1924, is the act of breastfeeding, a special and unique relationship between mother and her child. Here Miro has reduced this intimate act to the simplest form, through his use of lines and shapes. It is an example of Miro’s colored wash canvas, upon which he then proceeded to draw lines and shapes until his perception of the image took shape. Miro’s fluctuation between his conscious and unconscious decisions in his work creates the automatism in which he is able to express the theme of maternity using very abstract shapes.

The subject would be hard to recognize if it were not for the title. The title of his work helps the viewer identify the composition of the maternal features on the canvas and to appreciate how the process of automatism has led to the artist identifying his own theme as it emerged from the two lines from which the piece evolves. The basic forms of this work are the lines which cross in the middle of the canvas. These act as both an axis of the human body, and to determine the place from which he uses a compass to both define the anatomy of the female form and to geometrically balance the work. The hole made by his compass is discernible to the naked eye at the intersection of the two straight lines.

The image makes clear a figurative representation of a human head, feminine through the flowing locks and the grounding mass on the opposite length, shaped as if it were a skirt. The other line alludes to two breasts, one in profile and one face on. Miro has reduced the female form into its very basic composition through lines and shapes. She has no identity and is not individual. The artist depicts her only through her natural shapes. The sexual organs are the defining feminine features. Maternity, therefore, as the title of the work and in Miro’s interpretation, is not about the warm natural act of love affection and nurturing, but the reduction to the basic necessity of sustenance after birth. On the end of both figurative nipples, insect like cells are attached, which appear to be suckling. Each cell is oppositely gendered, the female form has a hollowed stomach with a womb, suggested by a black dot, whereas the stomach of the male is painted in solid. Both genders stay latched on tight as the female form resembling a pendulum, sways. Breastfeeding is thus portrayed as an act of survival and dependency. Although Miro has made a clear focus on the female sexual organs, these infant cells emphasize the life that procreation gifts and hence the subject matter, even in its simplest form, highlights the connection and bond between mother and child.

The work has been conceived by Miro from his subconscious, yet it demonstrates the conception of life in a conscious form. This work has been imagined in a world that is hard to access and to comprehend, and yet it creates the most simplistic understanding of life in a modern representation.

In contrast to Miro’s representation of maternity, Dorothea Tanning’s painting of the same name, presents the image of maternity as a mother and a child. Unlike Miro’s abstracted forms, Tanning’s view of motherhood is presented by a mother holding her infant to her shoulder, wrapping a protective arm around its back. Where Miro presents a geometric representation of a mother, Tanning gives the mother and child their own identity through the inclusion of recognizable faces. Although both are unidentifiable in name, Tanning classifies the act of the mother holding her child in an act of comfort and reassurance. However, she then undermines this by presenting the two figures in an isolated desert expanse, under dark oppressive clouds, creating a feeling of foreboding. There is a sense that this dream-world is actually one of both solitude and the alienation of a mother with her child, perhaps indicate a despairing contemplation of the biological destiny of women.

Tanning’s life-like rendering and expressive facial features of her characters gives the painting an emotional outlook for the viewer, imparting feelings of tenderness, care and maternal love. Yet this is foreshadowed by the anxious or fretful look on the mother’s face, which looks away from her child. The physical isolation, stranded in this bleak featureless landscape, with only a grubby rug protecting them all from the sand below, creates the feeling of loneliness, remoteness, alienation and emotional isolation; and the clothing of the woman, ripped, creased and torn to the lower front, is likely an indication of Tanning’s fear of the possible adverse effects of childbirth on the female form.

As is characteristic of the Surrealist style of painting throughout the movement, her landscape is not one defined by time or specific location. It is purely a figment of her imagination. The impossibility of scale, with the foreground compared to the horizon, creates dreamlike opposition to the reality of the space. With the inclusion of two doors and their frames, Tanning manages to enclose the seemingly open scene of the sandy plateau. Through her use of a muted color palette, with only hints and breakthroughs of the primary blue compared to the vast base tones of yellow, she creates a dullness which echoes the feeling of the characters.

Although opposite to Miro’s presentation of Maternity as the biology of sustenance and survival in his geometric forms, Tanning’s setting is representational of the Surrealist’s subconscious and alludes to the biological form of motherhood with the inclusion of a womb like structure in the background. In placing this organ behind the open door, Tanning makes a comment on how the cervix is the door to life. In her painting, this door in the background opens onto the scene. This is possibly a reference to the artist’s fear of feeling restricted by her gender to the role of motherhood, and a comment on the inevitability of a woman’s confinement after childbirth. Ironically, Tanning, who was against having children, treated her beloved pet Pekingese dog, whom she shared with Max Ernst while living in Sedona, to the love and affection normally shown by a mother to her child. The inclusion of the baby-faced dog in this maternal scene, creates an interesting juxtaposition for the viewer to contemplate the reference to Tanning’s own views on maternity. This emotion perhaps highlights the stark contrast between life and death. Life is represented by the living, breathing beings of the mother and her child and by the inclusion of the baby-faced dog. This is not unusual for the Surrealist artists to create such beings, this inclusion alongside the depiction of the landscape has an air of Salvador Dali.

Rather than Miro’s comment on the generic form of maternity being an ability to sustain life through breastfeeding, Tanning’s representation of maternity is a very inward reflection of her own perception of her distaste for the role of motherhood and the adverse effects it would have upon her career and life. Tanning’s presentation of maternity embodies the Surrealist ideals of turning inward to create their outwardly projected art.

In complete contrast to both Miro’s and Tanning’s depictions of maternity, is Max Ernst’s ‘The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child Before Three Witnesses: Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, and the Painter’ (1926). Here Ernst addresses the most famous religious motif – the Madonna and Child. Unlike the typical portrayals found throughout art history of this iconic imagery of the divine Christ Child in his mother’s protective embrace, Ernst portrays the extreme opposite. Here the Virgin Mary is depicted as an earthy, frustrated woman, who the viewer witnesses in the act of spanking her unruly son. Ernst successfully questions his own Catholic faith and challenges the respectful and devout beliefs that this denomination of the Christian church traditionally holds for the mother of Christ. Ernst himself was already in turmoil about his beliefs, as he blamed the death of his sister on his devoutly Catholic father. Ernst knew that his subject would be controversial and that he risked persecution. When the painting was exhibited in Cologne, Ernst was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for the act of blasphemy.

In the work, Ernst attempts to create a simultaneously controversial and sharply humorous scene. By including three witnesses, two of whom are fellow Surrealist artists, along with a self-portrait, he infers that their presence has little interest in the events unfolding before them. This is accentuated through their muted tones and color palette which sees the three blend into their particular background. In stark contrast, the Virgin and Child are projected to the foreground through the use of the bright primary color base. The landscape in which the holy figures are represented is disjointed through the pastel walls with the light blue sky behind. Her blue knee blanket, pulled taught at her frustrated strain in supporting the Child on her lap, reflects the classical association of the Virgin Mary and the distinctive ultramarine blue used by Renaissance painters due to its vivid and rich consistency. The high cost of extracting the ultramarine pigment from the stone Lapis Lazuli made it one of the most precious artist materials and was almost exclusively reserved for use in depictions of the robes of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child. The deep celestial blue remains symbolic in the representation of royalty, honor and power. It is also a universal symbol of wisdom and truth.

What is most shocking about this Surrealist piece and the cause of outrage at the time, is the sacrilegious image of Christ’s ‘fallen halo’. Where the Virgin’s head is adorned with her halo, separating her from the three mortal witnesses, in the act of Christ’s reprimand, the Child’s halo is shown fallen to the floor. Christ appears no longer the ‘Savior of man’, but becomes just another child at the hands of his mother. Furthering this point, Christ’s bare posterior displays the red marks already left by his mother’s chastising hand, indicating a level of severity in the punishment that borders on violence. This is a shocking and disturbing contrast to the traditional portrayal of the Virgin Mary as meek, mild and demure as formally depicted by the church for centuries. Rather indiscreetly and importantly, the author has outlined his own signature with the fallen halo, perhaps underlining his intention to offend and at the same time accept responsibility for his portrayal.

Although the Virgin stands out from the pastel background and her form is indicated through the geometric contortion of shapes, the Christ Child juxtaposes this and is presented like a classical cherub, contorted over his mother’s lap, echoing the Mannerist elongation of form.

Where Miro’s maternity acts as the base geometric form, and Tanning’s motherhood is presented in a lost landscape, Ernst’s maternal scene expresses not the care the other two artists cleverly indicate; instead, he has dared to present a distressing and thought, provoking representation of the epitome of the history of maternity. He subjects the son of the Holy Father to the pains of the mortal world, controversially at the hands of his own mother. The Madonna and Child have typically, throughout artistic periods, been depicted as divine and holy and are iconic images for the Christian and Catholic churches. Ironically, this work by Ernst has become iconic for the Surrealist movement.

Similar to Miro and Tanning, Ernst has created a scene conjured completely from his imagination. It is as if his subconscious, which is so important to the Surrealists, has tried to compare the realities of having children with the divinity that Christ traditionally represents. He has challenged the typical understanding of the Virgin and Child, much as his fellow the Surrealists in this essay have challenged exactly what is maternal.

Leo Steinberg, a well-known art critic, pointed out that in fact, the two poets who are supposed witnesses cannot actually see the act that is taking place from the direction that they are both facing. He also suggests that the artist himself is not looking at the spanking, but at the viewer. This dramatically changes the interpretation of the work and that the focus is actually not on the act itself but upon the reaction of the audience: “The viewer is being observed looking at the act and is therefore asked to examine the nature of his fascination with the violence”. Although the Surrealist movement and its art unashamedly aimed to provoke, Ernst’s depiction of the Christ Child in this manner caused considerable controversy and was seen as an attack on Christianity and its contemporary values. Steinberg noted that in fact the two poets can’t possibly see the spanking from their position and the painter isn’t looking at the act, but instead at the viewer. This radically changes the meaning of the painting, taking the focus away from the Virgin spanking the Christ Child to the fact that the viewer is being observed looking at the act, and is therefore asked to examine the nature of his fascination with the violence.

These three famous and notably extreme examples are all indicative of the way that the Surrealism movement allowed the role of the mother in both society and in art to be viewed differently and with a refreshingly new perspective. There was a clear plea for an honesty and for a social conscience to recognize the struggle and pressures on the maternal female, rather than to romanticize the relationship of a mother and her child with images of nurturing that were common throughout most periods of art history. The representation of the female in Surrealism reflects the developing views on feminism and the role of women in society. The depictions also show important contrasts when portrayed from the imagination of a male or female painter. The male-dominated Surrealist movement, with its strong views on the role of the female, had a major effect on the female artists. The men wanted muses and mistresses, not mothers. The women wanted to show their independence and creativity without the shackles of motherhood. Tanning was one example of many female artists of the time who made the decision to focus their life on their work at the expense of having their own family. Remedios Varo, the Spanish painter and lover of Surrealist poet Benjamin Peret, Leonor Fini, the Argentinian artist, Dora Maar, the Surrealist painter and muse of Pablo Picasso, all decided that motherhood was not for them. Varo’s ‘Celestial Pablum’ (1958) shows a lonely woman seated in an isolated tower feeding a caged moon is considered a commentary on how maternity enslaves women, wearing them down, so that all autonomy is lost. “In Varo’s ‘Celestial Pablum’, an isolated woman sits in a lonely tower, a blank expression on her face, and mechanically grinds up stars which she feeds to an insatiable moon. The somber palette and mat surface cast their own pall over the work [paintings such as this] are remarkable for their powerful imagining of the conflicts inherent in maternity: the physical changes initiated by pregnancy and lactation, the mother’s exhaustion and feared loss of autonomy” – Whitney Chadwick, ‘Women, Art, and Society’ (1996). It is therefore not surprising that the depiction of maternity by many Surrealists was not about love and affection, but about how maternity traps women. Whilst the male artists depicted maternity with disdain and lack of emotion, the works by female artists show fear and loathing of the life they envisaged that maternity would bring for them.

Paid Maternity Leave Policy: Critical Essay

Paid maternity leave is a fairly new topic, specifically within the United States. Less than sixty years ago, women were still largely considered as inferior to men in the workplace and were denied opportunities and jobs based off that fact. A considerable portion of women still took the stereotypical role of the ‘homemaker’, while the men brought in the income. A part of this discrimination was because of a woman’s ability to have children, and thus not be able to put in the amount or quality of work a man could. The Civil Rights Act and Equal Pay Act from the 1960s started the campaign for equal rights among men and women and allowed women to be able to participate in the workforce. Paid maternity leave, being compensated while on leave from work after giving birth or adopting, is a system already set up in several developed countries, but not in the United States. A periodical titled ‘A Plan for Parental Leave’ by Abby M. McCloskey from National Review states: “Lack of paid leave is a problem especially for low-income mothers, single mothers, and for the four in ten American mothers who are their household’s main breadwinner, according to Pew Research Center” (par.5). Stakeholders in this issue include political parties, law-making bodies, and political organizations. Different aspects of paid maternity leave can be looked at scientifically, socially, economically, and historically/politically. Scientifically, the relationship between mother, child, and length of leave can be evaluated, while economically, the effects of monetary compensation for non-working mothers can be analyzed. Politically/historically, maternity leave has become a debated topic for how past laws and regulations should be updated to today’s standards. This forms the question of to what extent should companies offer paid maternity leave in the United States.

The first legislative decision in the U.S. regarding pregnancy in the workforce is the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978. A periodical, written by Jay Starkman and Camille Cooper titled ‘Avoiding Pregnancy Discrimination’ and published in Workforce, a multimedia publication providing information on business strategy and people management, explains: “The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act is an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and it makes discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions unlawful” (par.4). In relation to maternity leave, this law outlines that employers are not permitted to require special procedures specifically for pregnant women when deciding their capabilities of doing work. For example, a worker affected by pregnancy does not have to submit a doctor’s note describing their limitations in work if other employees experiencing different disabilities are not required to by the employer (Starkman). However, there have been judiciary problems because of the ambiguous phrasing in the PDA. Susan R. Dana from the Southern Law Journal writes in her peer-reviewed article titled ‘Recent Pregnancy Discrimination Litigation: Defining the Jurisdictional Scope of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act’ that the “PDA has yielded numerous inconsistencies in application and interpretation… due to the broad language and the lack of clear guidelines” (p.32). An example of this was when maternity leave was excluded from retirement credit by employers, decreasing retirement benefits of those individuals. Women brought this to court, suing their employers for pregnancy and sex discrimination. The PDA was then interpreted several different ways, resulting in a non-uniform consensus on the issue.

The current law that addresses maternity leave federally in the U.S. is the FMLA, passed in 1993. A peer-reviewed article titled ‘Balancing Career and Parenthood: The Family Medical Leave Act and Maternity Leave’ by Nicole Magill from Widener Law Review restates that Congress’ purpose for this law was “‘to balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families, to promote the stability and economic security of families, and to promote national interests in preserving family integrity” (p.280). This shows Congress’ effort in recognizing and helping people grow their family values in a way that keeps them economically stable. The FMLA specifies the ability for workers to take off 12 weeks of work (within a year) for an approved reason, either family or medical. Under this law, companies are not required to give pay when their workers go on leave. Maternity leave would fall under the categories listed for FMLA, but the time given off work is not exclusive to giving birth. Currently, there is an issue regarding the amount of people who are eligible to take advantage of the law. A peer-reviewed article form the Harvard International Review describes how “only roughly half of US workers qualify for the leave entitlements [FMLA] provides, a figure that includes fewer than 20 percent of new mothers” (Neckermann). This is because people who work in small businesses or work less than 1,250 hours per year at any one company are not included in the spectrum of qualifications (Neckermann). Moreover, Abby McCloskey from ‘A Plan for Parental Leave’ explains that “because it is unpaid, many mothers cannot afford to take this leave even if they are eligible to do so” (par.2). Compared to other industrialized European countries, the FMLA is heavily criticized. This is because other countries allow for an average 10 months and up to two or three years of leave, drastically different from the FMLA policy (Berger).

More recently, there has been a political debate not over whether paid maternity leave should exist, but about how and with what limits it should be implemented. A current article published in The Fiscal Times on October 28, 2018 by Emily Zeppieri titled ‘Paid Family Leave: The Leading Democratic and Republican Proposals, Explained’, along with McCloskey’s ‘A Plan for Parental Leave’, explains the Democratic versus Republican solutions to maternity leave. The main Democratic plan, proposed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (CT), is titled the “Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act (Family Act), which would provide up to twelve weeks of paid family leave (which covers any family-related caretaking situations)…funded by payroll taxes” (McCloskey, par.8). A new income tax would be made to deposit money into a federally managed bank account collected through a payroll deduction system (Zeppieri). Zeppieri further describes how a “worker would be entitled to draw from the fund and use that money toward time off from work in the event of a covered medical or family need” (par.9). The main Republican stance is in support of the Economic Security for New Parents Act, which allows a paid maternity leave for 12 weeks maximum after a child is born or adopted. This plan is paid for through social security, not taxes. Parents can pull from their social security fund and ‘repay’ it later by postponing retirement (Zeppieri). The Republican plan is supported by the Independent Women’s Forum, which is a non-profit conservative based political organization, as stated in a publication on the IWF platform by Kristin Shapiro. The main difference between the Republican plan and the Democratic plan is the former is paid for through payroll taxes, while the latter is paid for through social security.

Ultimately, a consensus has been made historically that maternity leave is an important right for women, and a recent political decision has been made that paid maternity leave options should be explored. The PDA attempted to address equality regarding maternity leave and other types of leave, but caused judicial inconsistencies because of the ambiguous language. Then, the FMLA was introduced as the first law involving a job-protected leave of absence, but a large portion of the population was deemed ineligible or unable to utilize the benefits. The new political debates introduce new policies that solve some of the issues from the former two laws, but differ within themselves on how maternity leave should be paid for. Hence, the issue of paid maternity is still a heavily debated topic that will continue to politically evolve.

Informative Essay on Nepali Culture: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Maternity

Nepalese culture is one that highly values family, tradition, and custom. Nepalese beliefs about pregnancy, childbearing, and general medicine are strongly influenced by religious beliefs and cultural practices. It is important to understand these influences when providing medical care so that the individual’s beliefs are respected while also promoting the health and safety of mother and baby with evidence-based medicine.

While other religions are also practiced, Hinduism is the primary religion in Nepal. Hinduism is considered as much a social practice as it is a religious practice and thus strongly influences all aspects of life. Karma is the moral system of cause and effect and is a central concept of Hinduism. The belief in karma influences perceptions of illness, health, and death in the way that life events are considered the result of past actions. Another main theme of Hinduism is the concept of purity versus impurity. Accordingly, Hindus may prefer to wash with running water and favor showers to baths. Certain actions, body parts, or objects may also be viewed as impure. Women, for example, are considered to be impure during their menstrual cycle and are isolated until the fourth day, at which point they receive a purification bath.

Ayurvedic medicine is a commonly practiced philosophy of wellness and is the belief that the body is comprised of three forces, called ‘dosha’, that promote health when in balance. Ayurveda includes the use of herbal medicine, lifestyle considerations, and hot and cold theory as methods to treat illnesses. Tibetan medicine is also practiced and is closely related to concepts of the Hindu faith. Tibetan medicine is founded on the belief that the mind creates the body’s condition and that health is ultimately the product of harmony between the body and the universe. Faith healing and the use of Ayurvedic medicine are the most frequently practiced healthcare systems in Nepal, therefore it is important to determine if such beliefs may influence adherence to modern medical treatment.

Some health considerations specific to Nepalese are thalassemia, sickle cell, and several other health risks such as hypertension, obesity, and dyslipidemia, all of which may pose a risk to both mother and baby. There is limited information about the rates of occurrence for thalassemia and sickle cell, but some research suggests that these conditions may be more prevalent in Nepal as a whole, or at least more common in certain regions. Thalassemia can increase cardiac, liver, and endocrine complications in pregnancy and increase the risk of miscarriage. Sickle cell disease may increase the risk of preterm birth, low birth weights, and other complications. For each of the possible health risks listed, screening, prenatal care, and careful monitoring are key to a healthy pregnancy.

Nepalis view pregnancy and birth as very natural processes that are ultimately in God’s hands and as such, no specific prescriptive or restrictive practices are noted regarding pregnancy. In general, not much preparation occurs throughout pregnancy, which could be related to spiritual beliefs, but may also be explained by limited access to resources. In studying the differences between rural and urban populations, the outcome of Nepalese pregnancies is associated with the geographical location in the mountains or hills, lower maternal literacy, lower parental education level, maternal occupation in agriculture, surface drinking water sources, and unimproved sanitation facilities. Women who live in rural areas, are low-income, or are of a lower caste may have additional difficulty accessing any type of antenatal care.

Whether a Nepali woman receives prenatal care appears highly dependent on her socioeconomic status, geographical location (i.e., rural versus urban), and age. Research showed that 84% who gave birth in Nepal over the last 5 years received prenatal care, but often not until the second trimester. Another study found that as little as 29% and upwards of 79% of women in more urban areas did not receive any prenatal care. Younger mothers were found to begin prenatal care earlier, but women who had previously given birth generally delayed or omitted prenatal care altogether. A portion of the findings about prenatal care may be due to religious beliefs that the safety and health of the newborn or fetus are more of a spiritual matter and cannot be externally controlled via medical intervention. An additional explanation may be that cultural norms prevent women from discussing sex or reproduction and consequently limit their autonomy to make decisions about health care.

Beyond prenatal care, Nepalese have many traditions and cultural views that may impact the full spectrum of pregnancy. A common belief is the ‘hot and cold theory’, in which ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ refers to the effect of food, herb, or medicine on the body, rather than its temperature. Hot or cold foods are consumed in correlation to wellness needs, and some foods may be eaten only in certain combinations or during specific seasons. Some examples of cold foods include bananas, citrus, chicken, milk, and many vegetables, and thus the avoidance of certain ‘cold’ foods during pregnancy could leave many women significantly lacking in certain nutrients. Nutrition may be further impacted by the practice of serving men first with women eating last and the least. Of additional concern is the use of certain Ayurvedic herbal medications that may contain lead. Therefore, it is of particular importance to educate Nepali women on the use of certain herbal medications while pregnant and to perform newborn screening. Food and herbal practices vary depending on geography, religion, and caste, so needs should be assessed for each woman individually.

Regarding social structure and gender norms, the patriarch typically heads the extended family, and Nepali mothers are highly respected, especially in the care of their children and daughters-in-law. While little research has focused on the gender preference of children, Nepal is generally classified as having notable levels of son preference. Although daughters are accepted, sons are often more valued because they continue the family name, can perform funeral rituals, and provide support to the elderly. Related to gender beliefs and, in particular, the birth of a son, it is worth noting that Hindus do not traditionally practice circumcision.

In part due to the patriarchal structure, as well as cultural or religious doctrine, Nepali women may feel limited in the ability to make their own decisions regarding contraception, pregnancy, and birth. They may fear that their husbands will abandon them if they do not act according to tradition, and may have little say about intercourse, condom use, or the number of children they bear. Women are expected to bear children and be the primary caregiver, so they may feel that they must accept the pregnancy regardless of their personal feelings. For example, there is the expectation that once married, a woman will get pregnant and give birth, while likely abstaining from contraception use until a son is born.

As noted previously, birth is viewed as a very positive and natural process, but giving birth in a hospital may be an unfamiliar experience for an immigrant, as only 57% of Nepali births occur in a health facility. In Nepal, many rural women may give birth in the cowshed called a ‘goth’. In general, Nepalese women view pregnancy as a natural process, and therefore medical intervention or monitoring is often considered unnecessary. Moreover, a Nepali woman’s spiritual beliefs and notion of being in God’s favor may significantly influence her perception of the health and survival of the newborn. When asked about the value of giving birth in a traditional setting that aligned with religious or cultural beliefs versus considering the outcome of the birth itself, many women indicated that losing a child is believed to be a customary part of pregnancy and childbirth. This statement is reflective of the Nepalese view that the health of the newborn is more likely associated with God’s favor than with medical care.

As tradition and community are so important to Nepalese culture, the birthing process also includes family support and certain expectations. For one, laboring women are discouraged from expressing pain or drawing attention to themselves. It is customary for a female relative, often the mother-in-law, to be present during birth. An older relative or neighbor may also be present and is called an ‘aji’ or traditional birth attendant. It is expected that female family members and friends assist with daily activities and care of the infant postpartum. Traditionally following birth, the new mother will stay with her in-laws’ for 30 days and later stay with their parents for several more days.

Men are often absent from the birthing process, as birth is considered a ‘women’s affair’. In rural Nepal, where many women give birth at home instead of health care facilities, however, the husbands may be the only person available to assist. Over time, this tradition has been changing and Nepali women are increasingly requesting the presence and involvement of the husband during the birthing process.

Following birth, both the mother and newborn are considered impure, and the birthing process itself is considered unclean. New mothers may remain in seclusion at home until a purification ceremony is performed, and others are likely to avoid touching the mother or holding the baby. The newborn is named and purified in a special ceremony, usually 3 to 12 days after birth, and the ceremony is traditionally performed by a priest. After the ceremony, the mother and baby are ‘clean’ and may be touched again. The mother may also be isolated to the cowshed as part of the re-purification process, and cow urine is used to purify the walls of the home. It is considered common practice to bury the placenta.

The newborn may be massaged with mustard oil, which is believed to regulate body temperature, promote weight gain, and prevent infection. Meanwhile, new mothers are fed a diet of lentils and spices such as cumin to stimulate milk production and may also eat a special bean soup, meat curry, and cake made of cashews and coconut to promote breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is viewed positively and typically encouraged for at least six months and even as long as three years. Several Ayurvedic medicines may also be utilized for the new mother including: ‘Janma ghuti’ for digestion, ‘Balmrita’ as herbal medicine, and ‘Jaiphal’, which is nutmeg. Some women are not aware of the importance of colostrum and discard it, mistaking it as insufficient milk, so education may be beneficial.

Healthcare practitioners should be aware of the cultural considerations and variations associated with Nepalese to provide the most culturally respectful experience. Further, care should be taken to educate and improve health outcomes for mother and baby, while being cautious not to disrupt a woman’s sense of tradition, community, and spiritual well-being. The best approach is clearly one that combines an understanding and respectful attitude with a recognition of the areas that may need additional attention and guidance.

References

  1. Cultural Atlas Nepalese. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.crculturevision.com/
  2. Ghimire, P. R., Agho, K. E., Renzaho, A., Christou, A., Nisha, M. K., Dibley, M., & Raynes-Greenow, C. (2017). Socio-Economic Predictors of Stillbirths in Nepal (2001-2011). PloS one, 12(7), e0181332. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0181332.
  3. Kaphle, S., Hancock, H., & Newman, L. A. (2013). Childbirth Traditions and Cultural Perceptions of Safety in Nepal: Critical Spaces to Ensure the Survival of Mothers and Newborns in Remote Mountain Villages. Midwifery, 29(10), 1173–1181. doi: 10.1016/j.midw.2013.06.002.
  4. Leone, T., Matthews, Z., & Zuanna, G. D. (2003). Impact and Determinants of Sex Preference in Nepal. International Family Planning Perspectives, 29(2), 69. doi: 10.2307/3181060.
  5. Paudel, M., Javanparast, S., Dasvarma, G., & Newman, L. (2018). A Qualitative Study About the Gendered Experiences of Motherhood and Perinatal Mortality in Mountain Villages of Nepal: Implications for Improving Perinatal Survival. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 18(1). doi: 10.1186/s12884-018-1776-3.
  6. Sickle Cell Disease and Pregnancy. (2019, October 21). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/pregnancy.html
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Society’s View on Single Motherhood

Abstract

Family structures are changing globally, and the definition of “family” is taking an unconventional twist with personal arrangements and belief systems, forming the basis of argument and justifications. Single parenthood is on the rise due to unavoidable circumstances such as the death of a spouse and in some instances, due to alternative family arrangements or decisions by spouses. Single motherhood is common to the society compared to single fatherhood, and the former attracts mixed reactions against the society members’ subjectivity. Subjectivity, in this case, refers to biased views and perceptions about single motherhood due to beliefs and ignorance that bring divisions in the society. This paper evaluates the society’s view on single motherhood by investigating how an individual’s level of political conservatism affects his/her perceptions of single motherhood. The study will base its investigations on the feminist theory to evaluate social structure’s influence on individual perceptions. Also, the study will employ conceptual and thematic approaches to analyze principles of feminist theory and to provide a general explanation to understand the question under study. To validate the study’s objective, it will employ ethnography to evaluate existing data and research further on trends and patterns to help understand the social phenomenon. In conclusion, the study will discuss the significance of the supporting data onto the sociological theory and suggest further research on the phenomenon.

Research Question

How does an individual level of political conservatism affect how he/she perceives single motherhood?

Description of the Research Question and purpose

Political conservatism addresses social framework that emphasizes stability and continuity to promote retention of social institutions. Conservative philosophies and ideals seek to preserve the originality and authenticity of social institutions and moral behavior (Dorey, 2011). In their view, the family is the basic social institution whereby child upbringing is the role of the spouses. That is, male and female partners join their hands and efforts to bear and take care of their children, thus, forming the basis of a nuclear family. In practice, political conservatism calls for the sanctity of marriage institutions while advocates the right to life for every individual as provided by institutional behaviors.

Society’s view on single motherhood depends on an individual’s beliefs, his/her level of understanding, social dynamics, and the capacity of social institutions to address single parenthood. Single motherhood and its justification elicited global debate on a majority of individuals viewing it as one of the widespread informal arrangements to replace marriage institutions. In a broader extent, society believes that children from single-parent families are problematic, with a larger percentage of them being from single-mother families (O’brien & Sage Publications, 2009). The society’s view on single motherhood might be subjective without the understanding of social dynamics and evaluation of the institution’s capacity to address single parenthood. Historical injustices and personal experiences broadly contribute to the individual’s perceptions of his/her environment that influences social behavior and development — generalizing single motherhood as bad for the society does not only ill-defined individuals’ philosophical ideologies but denies social institutions a chance to evaluate their development. Ideologically, conservatives will address family from economic protection point of view, liberation and free conscience of the spouses and from the moral independence point of view to address issues of family autonomy and non-invasion.

Applying a Sociological theory

Sociological theories seek to analyze the status of social structures and institutions by evaluating moral behaviors and investigating their implementation for functional development. The feminist theory addresses various aspects of women lives by evaluating contemporary knowledge on the status of men and women in society (Andersen & Taylor, 2011). It acknowledges biological and psycho-social domains in life that influence society’s perceptions of women and how these domains contribute to the wellbeing or worsening of society.

Major Concepts, Themes, and Principles

Conceptually, feminist theory bases its arguments on key pillars of gender inequality, gender differences, gender oppression, and structural oppression to address social phenomena and how the marginalization of women is dangerous to society. Thematically, feminist theorists look into details of the aspects of age, social class, ethnicity and race, and how these themes influence society’s view on women. Principles of gender equality and adherence to the rule of law play a major role in justifying women’s moral obligations and capacity to improve society’s wellbeing (Hesse-Biber, 2012).

Society’s view on motherhood associates the biological differences in womanhood and femininity with weaknesses and lack of control of the child upbringing. Cultural feminists or political conservatives tend to view women as socially incapable of raising children by social needs. They, in a majority of cases, treat women as “others” from a patriarchal point of view and view single motherhood as a lost opportunity for the survival and continuation of a developed society (Ritzer, 2010). On the aspects of gender inequality, political conservatives view single motherhood as an institution lacking agency capacity for moral reasoning, social implementation and as a liberalized institution that does not promote protection and defense of the society. Ideologically, political conservatives base their views of the marriage institution on a commitment to faith and religion, and that family is the basic unit of the society, which needs to be holistic and functional. Single motherhood, in this case, indicates the violation of social traditions and the will of God as provided in the Holy Bible (Braidotti, 2011).

Political conservatives approach gender oppression in terms of power and psychoanalysis to address the value and strength of sisterhood about society’s wellbeing. For example, their view on the importance of a male partner in providing leadership and guidance to a developing child is candid and ideologically supported by their principle of autonomy and non-invasion (Hemmings, 2011). This disregards women’s capacity to provide leadership and cultural guidance to the children in the absence of a father-figure in such family setup. Odegard & Vereen (2010) observed that the themes of age and social class defined the society’s view of single motherhood based on economic and gender exploitation. The capitalist mode of production promotes gender and age forms of discrimination of women facing the worst scenarios. Political Conservatism’s explanation of single motherhood justifies the importance of a male figure in a family disregarding the establishment of single motherhood.

Data Collection

The study seeks to apply ethnography for data collection to eliminate philosophical bias and maintain evaluation standards. Ascertaining society’s view on single motherhood calls for a non-consensus approach to holistic real-life experiences and the development of cultural practices and perceptions on the subject (McCarty, 2011). Data collection, in this case, touches on the impacts on the situation at hand, expression of reality, reflexivity of the judgment about political conservatism and the substantive contribution of this study to the society views on single motherhood. Responses from class’ peer review discussion groups of 15 people each, community field notes and researched documents, provide details on data collection and evaluation of this study. Peer review discussions will constitute personal views on single motherhood, whereas community field notes will consist of 1000 simple survey leaflets from their local communities on whether individuals support single motherhood or not and their political ideologies. Researched documents will rely on archived information and data of societies and single motherhood.

Peer review discussions classified single motherhood into three categories, “willing,” “rejected,” and “accidental.” That is, the willing category consisted of single mothers by choice; rejected categories represented divorced mothers while the accidental category consisted of single mothers who were skeptical about marriage institutions. Groups’ discussions were based on observations from the local environment/areas of residence with 61 percent of group members admitting to disregard single motherhood irrespective of the cause. Twenty-seven percent of group members were torn between appreciating single motherhood over single fatherhood, while 12 percent viewed single motherhood positively. Seventy-nine percent of the group members confessed conservative affiliation, explaining the contextual 61 percent of ideologies against single motherhood. From a sociological point of view and the fact that peer review discussions contribute to the evaluation of the phenomenon, the discussion trends indicated worrying patterns of personal beliefs that deteriorate one’s attitudes to single motherhood.

Community field notes indicated that 63 percent of respondent disregard single motherhood based on holistic child development and leadership. Twenty-one percent of the respondents were torn between the sensitivity of the matter and the society’s moral obligations to strengthen the family institution, while 16 percent were comfortable with an individual’s choice of family structure. Of the 1000 respondents, 73 percent confessed conservative ideologies, and 59 percent of conservatives disregarded single motherhood as a social institution. The trend and distribution patterns explain the strength of political conservatism and their belief of sanctity of marriage and family as the basic unit of society.

Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press (2008) observed that societies gauge women’s ability to control their families and provide leadership on their social statuses and age. In their research on single motherhood and leadership, 2691 adults were interviewed, and 69 percent of the respondents viewed single motherhood as bad for the development of a society. The study concluded that society’s negative attitude towards single motherhood reflected the widespread belief of single parenthood as “cancer” targeting the family institution.

Conclusion and Further Research

From the data above, society’s negative attitude to single motherhood is overwhelming with patterns showing a significant section of the society’s disregard. Political ideologies seem to have significant command of an individual’s views and perceptions on single motherhood and single parenthood at large. Peer review discussions data, community field notes, and Pew Research Center supported the feminist theory in its effort to address societal attitudes towards women. From the data, a significant percentage of respondents seemed to be torn between family arrangements, cultural behaviors, and political affiliation. Addressing this topic in a broader perspective would require a detailed evaluation of society’s view on single fatherhood and factors that contribute to single parenthood about different races and geographies for a conclusive generalization.

References

Andersen, M. L. & Taylor, H. F. (2011). Sociology: The essentials. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Braidotti, R. (2011). Nomadic subjects: Embodiment and sexual difference in contemporary feminist theory. New York: Columbia University Press.

Dorey, P. (2011). British Conservatism: The politics and philosophy of inequality. London: I.B. Tauris.

Hemmings, C. (2011). Why stories matter: The political grammar of feminist theory. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Hesse-Biber, S. N. (2012). Handbook of feminist research: Theory and praxis. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

McCarty, T. L. (2011). Ethnography and language policy. New York: Routledge.

O’Brien, J. & Sage Publications. (2009). Encyclopedia of gender and society. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.

Odegard, M. A., & Vereen, L. G. (December 01, 2010). A Grounded Theory of Counselor Educators Integrating Social Justice Into Their Pedagogy. Counselor Education and Supervision, 50, 2, 130-149.

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. (2008). The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Washington, DC: The Center.

Ritzer, G. (2010). Sociological theory. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

The Concept of Motherhood Penalties

The issue of gender equality has become popular in different areas of study, especially beginning in the late 20th century. In the workplace, proponents of this concept argue that people should have equal access to job opportunities regardless of their gender. The campaign for gender equality has transformed the 21st-century workplace with women being assessed for promotion and other work-related aspects based on merit, as opposed to their gender, even though such an argument is debatable.

However, an insidious phenomenon has emerged, and it adversely affects women who decide to have children and remain in the workplace. The available research shows that mothers are being subjected to significant wage penalties in the workplace because they have borne children. In other words, the decision to become a mother comes with associated disadvantages on top of the long-running gender-based discrimination that women have been experiencing in their lives.

This paper is a reflection on the concept of motherhood penalties, as presented in the article “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” by Correll, Benard, and Paik (2007).

One of the interesting concepts presented in this article is the issue of motherhood penalty. At first, when I saw the title of the article, I thought that it is bizarre that women would be punished for having children. However, a clear look at its contents reveals that this issue is not based on anecdotes or personal opinions. On the contrary, the question of motherhood penalty has been researched and documented in reputable scholarly journals.

According to Correll et al. (2007), two recent studies have established that employed mothers in the US are punished with a per-child wage penalty of around 5 percent after the researchers controlled for the normal occupational and human capital factors affecting wages. In an interesting discovery, one study found that the pay gap between non-mothers and mothers aged below 35 years is larger than that between men and women. Therefore, based on these findings, employed mothers are the most disadvantaged group of workers experiencing the largest pay gap.

The issue of the motherhood penalty is important in modern society because apart from being bizarre and retrogressive, it compounds the problem of the gender pay gap and other inequalities that women have been experiencing since the civilization of societies.

The proponents of gender equality have achieved recommendable results in their quest to ensure that people are judged based on meritocracy as opposed to their gender. However, the fight against gender inequality is not over with the emergence of this motherhood penalty. Women are being punished for having children, and as expected, those that choose not to become mothers are rewarded. This kind of thinking is wrong as it directly discourages women from having children, which is counterproductive at different levels.

First, the only way to replenish the workforce and ensure that society has enough people to meet staffing needs in the workplace is through giving birth. In other words, if the majority of women decided to pursue the benefits of not having children as proposed by the structuring of wages, it means that ultimately, the very organizations promoting this anomaly will not have enough workers.

Therefore, even by holding all other factors at constant, the idea of penalizing motherhood in the workplace is counterproductive on its own. Consequently, employers should be rewarding mothers as part of their long-term strategy of ensuring that there will be enough employees in the future to support the continued existence of these organizations.

Second, women have suffered for long through institutionalized discrimination based on their gender. Therefore, adding another angle of suffering to an already marginalized group of individuals compounds their undeserved suffering. This is the time to support women’s rights and gender equality because women are not lesser human beings. It is wrong to punish women for participating in the only natural process available to ensure that humanity does not become extinct.

The desire to give birth is universal – even when plants and other animals (apart from human beings) are threatened with death, they give birth for the continuity of their species. When plants are exposed to adverse weather environments, natural instincts set in to reproduce so that they do not die without leaving their progenies behind.

Even from an evolutionary perspective, the process of natural selection relied on the concept of preserving the fittest species to reproduce for the posterity of life on earth. As such, it is baffling that civilized society would turn against the very processes that have supported the advancement of humanity. However, it is important to understand the reasoning behind the motherhood penalty in a bid to place the issue in its right context.

A variety of factors has been put forward to explain the concept of motherhood penalty based on the wage gap. For instance, mothers allegedly invest less in the development of human capital as compared to non-mothers. Similarly, mothers are likely to be less committed or put effort into their work as compared to non-mothers.

In general, Correll et al. (2007) argue that reasons behind the motherhood wage penalty can be “classified as those that seek to identify important differences in the traits, skills, and behaviors between mothers and non-mothers (i.e., worker explanations) and those that rely on the differential preference for or treatment of mothers and non-mothers (i.e., discrimination explanations” (p. 1299).

Some of the explanations put forward concerning this issue make sense when addressed critically. For instance, a study conducted in England in 2001 found that mothers are less productive at work as compared to non-mothers because they are likely to be interrupted in the career development journey, work part-time, or discriminated against by their employers (Correll et al., 2007).

The best-known hypothesis explaining the wage gap between mothers and non-mothers is that of work effort. First, mothers would exhaust their energy reserves taking care of their children, hence low productivity, as opposed to non-mothers. Additionally, mothers would be distracted by constantly thinking about their children, among other mediating factors that link motherhood to low productivity.

However, in their study, Correll et al. (2007) found that even in cases where mothers showed equal productivity as non-mother, the pay gap still existed, which implies that discrimination forces by employers could be at play under such circumstances. Therefore, even when mothers are willing to put the expected efforts and commitment to their work, they are likely to pay the motherhood penalty due to stereotypical discrimination based on the assumption that they are not competent.

The overall theme that arises from this article is that of gender discrimination because Correll et al. (2007) found that fathers were actually rewarded for becoming parents. Fathers are seen as responsible men, hence the implicit assumption that they could be good employees. Therefore, the issue of gender discrimination stands out, which is also the same theme that comes out in the article, “Does Unequal Housework Lead to Divorce? Evidence from Sweden” by Ruppanner, Brandén, and Turunen (2018). In this article, the authors found that women are likely to perform more household duties as compared to men.

Interestingly, women who report cases of uneven housework, which means they do more than their male partners, are likely to be unsatisfied with their relationships, and they are thus highly likely to consider breaking-up their unions. Therefore, women are disadvantaged because they do the largest part of domestic chores, which leads to their dissatisfaction, hence high divorce rates. The underlying issue in this observation is that of gender discrimination and inequality. By virtue of being women, these individuals have to fit into traditional stereotypes of being housewives, but they are punished for that through divorce.

This argument, as presented by Ruppanner et al. (2018), is linked to the issues fronted by Correll et al. (2007). First, in the two articles, women are discriminated against and punished for being women. In Corell et al. (2007), women are penalized for being mothers, while in Ruppanner et al. (2018), they are punished for being housewives.

Second, these arguments speak to the broad issue of gender inequality and discrimination. This connection is important conceptually and theoretically because it highlights the pervasive nature of gender inequality, both in the workplace and at home. Researchers could use this understanding to inform their work on this crucial subject that continues to affect women disproportionately.

Gender-based discrimination and inequality are important aspects that affect women in contemporary times. From the article by Corell et al. (2007), motherhood is punished as mothers experience significant wage gaps when compared to non-mothers. In the article by Ruppanner et al. (2018), women are likely to perform more household duties as compared to their male partners, and this aspect contributes to high divorce rates among such women. These articles underline the permeating nature of gender-based inequality, whether at home or in the workplace. The connection between the two articles is important because it presents research gaps that could be addressed in future studies.

Works Cited

Correll, Shelley, Stephen Benard, and In Paik. 2007. “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” American Journal of Sociology 112(5): 1297-1338.

Ruppanner, Leah, Maria Brandén, and Jani Turunen. 2018. “Does Unequal Housework Lead to Divorce? Evidence from Sweden.” Sociology 52(1): 75-94.

The Motherhood Penalty vs. the Fatherhood Bonus

In the article “The Motherhood Penalty vs. the Fatherhood Bonus,” Claire Cain Miller discusses differences in compensation between mothers and fathers. Employers perceive mothers as less trustworthy employees because of their family responsibilities. Men are seen as more responsible when they have children or families. It is unfair that one gender gets rewarded for having children while the other is disadvantaged for the same thing.

The article is quite informative and highlights inequality in society. One sentence that stood out to me from the article is that “Mothers were offered on average $11,000 less than childless women and $13,000 less than fathers” (Miller, 2014, p. 2). I found this quote thought-provoking because it highlights the magnitude of the motherhood penalty. The statistic is shocking but necessary because it quantifies just how much, in monetary terms, women are punished for having families.

One idea I relate to is how hard mothers have to work to prove themselves. Women with children must balance being good employees and good mothers. I know that much of the childcaring responsibilities fall on their shoulders. Traditional gender roles set women as the default caregivers and men as breadwinners, despite the fact that women are now employed outside the home. Sadly, mothers work harder yet earn less than fathers and childless women. The article also led me to question whether employers would be reluctant to hire women of childbearing age to avoid providing them with maternity leave and other essential accommodations. I am horrified that we live in a society that makes no provision for women to start families, even though most women have children. Thus, it is no surprise that we are witnessing a decline in the birth rate.

Reference

Miller, C. C. (2014). . The New York Times. Web.

Prenatal and Post Natal Motherhood

The Report

The report was based on the study of the impact of depression screening on prenatal and post natal motherhood and effects of early interventions. A rigorous selection criterion was applied in collecting relevant data for analysis to answer key question (KQ) on the impact of early interventions.

The study was assessed against predetermined benchmarks to ensure good quality and reliable results. To attain high quality data, data validation and verification techniques were used in the research. The target population was fairly treated with adequate representation with sensitivity analysis appropriate performance ratings on the test sample.

Statistical Methods

The statistical procedures mentioned in the study included data collection techniques, sampling methods, the null and alternative hypotheses, probability distributions, the level and type of test done, and the rejection criteria on the significance of prenatal and post natal interventions (Crawshaw & Chambers, 2002, p. 509).

According to Gaynes, Gavin,Meltzer-Brody, Lohr, Swinson, Gartlehner, Brody and Miller (2005, p.4) a systematic research study was integrated in the evidence based study for accessing and retrieving data from electronic databases. Indexing was based on Author name, and article names were used to access and retrieve relevant data and information.

The research report indicated that mass screening of history subjects was done and an analysis of the effects of treatments was conducted. Of the total searches conducted, 837 unduplicated were identified, of which 9 were identified through handpicking, and 846 from discussions with TEAG. Other systematic reviews done included searches with perinatal and depressions, as the key words (Gaynes, Gavin, Meltzer-Brody, Lohr, Swinson, Gartlehner, Brody and Miller, 2005, p.6).

Though 50 searches fell short of meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria, these results were identified to be influenced by the absence of established benchmarks against which they could be tested. This resulted in the elimination of 26 studies. In addition to that, various reasons identified for the exclusion criteria included lack of sensitivity and specificity, lack of depression outcome figures, and restrictions on certain sub groups (Gaynes, Gavin, Meltzer-Brody, Lohr, Swinson, Gartlehner, Brody and Miller, 2005, p.2).

A total of 59 studies were included in the study although less than that figure met the inclusion criteria (Gaynes et al., 2005, 2).

The Process and Significance Tests

A test sample on 15 patients with 11 successful early intervention cases were subjected to a hypothesis test. It was claimed in the study that early intervention was 90% successful on a 5 % significance test. The results were modelled by a binomial distribution independent of other patients, where X-B (15, p).

The Ho: p=0.9 (success of early intervention) and H: p<0.9 (success rate lower than 90%, according to the claim), where Ho is the null and H the alternative hypothesis. The claim could be rejected if, on a one tailed test for Ho the p (X≤x) < 5%, with 11 being the test value of x in the equations. Using cumulative binomial tables or calculating the probabilities directly, p (X≤11) =1-p (X≥12) = 1-0.9444 = 5.6%.

According to the statistical analysis of the representative population, the results were upheld.

The conclusion was appropriate since the p (X≤11) ≥ 5%. Implying that the lower tail of the distribution is to the left of x=11which is not in the critical region. Verifying and enforcing the claim early to interventions (Crawshaw & Chambers, 2002, p. 485).

The findings were statistically significant since a one tailed test was done on the alternative hypothesis with the p< 0.9 in the lower tail of the distribution.

The four basic approaches integrated in the study included, (1) the volume of studies, (2) sample sizes, (3) The degree of quality of each sample, and (4) Sample size representations.

References

Crawshaw, J & Chambers. (2002), J. Advanced Level Statistics with worked examples. 4th ed. Cheltenham: GL537TH, United Kingdom.

Gaynes, B. N., Gavin, N., Meltzer-Brody, S., Lohr, K. N., Swinson, T., Gartlehner, G., Brody, S., Miller, W. C. (2005). Perinatal Depression: Prevalence, Screening Accuracy, and Screening Outcomes.

Gaynes, B. N, Gavin, N, Meltzer-Brody, S., Lohr, K., N., Swinson, T, Gartlehner, G., Brody, S., Miller, W. C. (2005). Screening Accuracy.