Arts in health: Pregnancy, birth & new parenthood

Art making offers a means for women to express and understand their changed sense of self-identity and sexuality as a result of pregnancy and motherhood. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces readers to the various ways in which art is being used with women who are experiencing different stages of childbearing–who may be unable to conceive and are struggling with infertility treatment, or experience miscarriage and loss, or are facing other issues of adjustment. It acknowledges that ideals around pregnancy and childbirth are highly contested, that this contestation, coupled with the very liminality of the event itself is challenging, if not potentially destabilising for new mothers and their partners. The English political activist and law reporter Vanessa Olorenshaw has pointed out that motherhood demands interdependence and sits uncomfortably with the dominant neo-liberal ideology of ‘self’ and ‘individualism’ as the core objects of a happy selfhood.