Book review: Making ‘postmodern’ mothers: pregnant embodiment, baby bumps and body image

"Making Postmodern Mothers: Pregnant Embodiment, Baby Bumps and Body Image." Meredith Nash. Palgrave Macmillan. November 2012. --- This book aims to provide a multi-disciplinary, empirical account of pregnant embodiment and how it fits into wider sociological and feminist discourses about gender, bodies, ‘fat’, feminism, and motherhood. The study draws on original qualitative data based on interviews with pregnant women, their partners, and maternity industry professionals. ‘Postmodern’ pregnancy features as an ambivalent and uncertain experience, with women negotiating the boundaries of femininity and motherhood in a socio-political and economic context that both promotes and constrains their ‘choices’. An excellent addition to any feminist’s book shelf, finds Megan O’Branski.