Maternal Love Research Articles

D. W. Winnicott, Julian of Norwich, and the Good-Enough Mother/Mystic

Abstract: This article examines the theological resonances in D. W. Winnicott’s theory of motherhood and infant development, bringing to light possible inheritances from the medieval mystical tradition. Considered against Winnicott’s own Wesleyan upbringing and later conversion to Anglicanism, a close reading of his personal writings reveals a personal identification with the Christ-figure and evidence of medievalism in his work that has not been previously recognized. The discussion then compares Winnicott’s paradigm of the “good-enough mother” with the language of maternal “enoughness” in the Revelations of fourteenth-century theologian, Julian of Norwich. This comparison uncovers a shared preoccupation with maternal love and sustained devotional practice, and what I call Julian’s “ordinary-language theology” is put forward as a potential precedent for what Adam Phillips has termed Winnicott’s “ordinary-language psychoanalysis.”*

Social consequences of recurrent pregnancy loss and maternal myths, past, present, and future in Japan

In Japan, the myth of motherhood, the idea that every woman harbours maternal love and that a woman only becomes a full-fledged woman after giving birth, has existed for a long time. However, there has been a limited number of studies concerning this motherhood myth in patients with recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). The present study aimed to examine the experiences of maternal myths in patients with RPL and to determine whether maternal myths affect depression. Participantsin the study included 61 patients in 1995, 71 patients in 2002, 503 patients from 2008 to 2012, and 318 patients and 1,210 pregnant women from 2017 to 2020. Patients who sought an examination of their RPL visited Nagoya City University Hospital, while pregnant women requiring a prenatal checkup visited Nagoya City West Medical Center. Both groups completed a questionnaire concerning seven maternal myths and how they rated their level of depression (K6).It was found that not only patients with RPL but also pregnant women with no pregnancy loss had encountered maternal myths and many of them felt some discomfort. It has become clear that exposure to such myths has decreased over the 25 years from 1995 to 2020 (p<0.05). Additionally, opportunities for exposure to maternal myths clearly had an impact on depression (p<0.05).It is imperative that we recognize the distress caused by these myths. One potential solution to this problem is to improve education on gender issues.

Trait mindfulness during pregnancy and maternal-infant bonding: Longitudinal associations with infant temperament and social-emotional development

Maternal love and caregiving are pillars for optimal child development and may affect infant outcomes from pregnancy onwards. The present study aimed to examine whether maternal trait mindfulness during pregnancy and pre- and postnatal maternal-infant bonding were associated with maternal perceptions of infant temperament and social-emotional development. In total, 408 Dutch women (Mage = 31.33, SD = 3.59) participated in a prospective perinatal cohort study and completed questionnaires on trait mindfulness, prenatal bonding, postnatal bonding, infant temperament, and infant social-emotional development at 20 and 28 weeks of gestation, and 10 weeks, 6 and 12 months postpartum, respectively. Path analyses demonstrated that higher levels of the trait mindfulness facet non-judging (i.e., refraining from judgments about own feelings and thoughts) were associated with more pre- and postnatal maternal bonding and fewer social-emotional problems as perceived by the mother. Adopting an accepting and non-judgmental attitude may promote positive feelings of bonding and benefit the infant in terms of having fewer social-emotional problems in the first year of life. Mindfulness interventions may be offered to pregnant women in order to enhance maternal bonding and improve infant outcomes after birth.

Historia, cuidados y género: discusiones y agendas futuras para la investigación historiográfica

The article presents a general, though not exhaustive, overview of the notion of care and its presence and relevance in gender historiography, examining how historical research can inform and shape new discussions. A bibliographic and narrative review methodology is used, comparing selected studies based on their contributions and scope. Given that care is a transdisciplinary issue with significant heuristic potential, both historical topics and those from other branches of the humanities and social sciences are considered. Care is understood here both as an affective and a labor disposition, and it is from these dimensions that the main debates and problems are presented, focusing specifically on those that have had the greatest presence in gender and history studies: domestic work, feminized professions that care for others, affective communities, and maternal love. In the context of the current care crisis, it is concluded that the topic needs to be viewed broadly and its contributions revalued from a critical gender theory perspective, also considering a historiographic perspective sensitive to contexts and capable of interpretive flexibility. The article focuses on the main academic discussions held in North America and European countries, aiming to contribute to understanding the theoretical and applied scope of care and acknowledging that there is still much ground to cover. The conclusions offer an overview of the thematic lines and theoretical assumptions that could enrich future historiographical research agendas on care.

Konsep Cinta dalam Novel Sunset Bersama Rosie karya Tere Liye

Pop novels are frequently undervalued due to their tendency to present a superficial and oversimplified portrayal of love. This research analyzed the depiction of love between characters in Tere Liye's novel Sunset Bersama Rosie (2017). Employing a content analysis methodology guided by Erich Fromm's theory, this study identifies five distinct concepts of love: love of neighbor, erotic love, love of God, love of self, and maternal love. The analysis uncovers a nuanced exploration of these concepts, particularly in the evolving relationships between the main characters. Notwithstanding its classification as a pop genre novel, Sunset Bersama Rosie offers an exceptionally diverse spectrum of love, showcasing a depth that is uncommon within the genre.

해녀 표상과 로컬리티

This study, on the premise that the perception of Haenyeo is not a fixed entity but a product that is discovered or changed according to social and political desires, traces the changes in perception by era as reflected in works on the theme of Haenyeo in the modern and contemporary era. The purpose of this study is to examine the meaning of the icon of Haenyeo to Lim Ho, who was called the painter of “Conch and Haenyeo.” In fact, Haenyeo, who had been subject to servile labor until the Joseon Dynasty, overcame adversity under the influence of colonial capitalism in the modern era, leading to the emergence of strong images of Haenyeo that sometimes stimulated maternal love. However, &lt;The Beach&gt;, one of Lim Ho's representative works, presents a lyrical landscape that is different from the existing Haenyeo. Paying attention to this point, the paper attempted to trace the meaning of the iconography of Haenyeo in Lim Ho's painting work. Haenyeo were a topic that Lim Ho had been obsessed with throughout his life, and they were also a manifestation of national sentiment beyond locality. It can be said that the lyrical local scene, which is different from the strong Haenyeo statue seen in &lt;The Beach&gt;, was the result of his consideration of local and national art as a first-generation Western painter in Busan.

Exploring the lived experiences of women with multiple gestations in Iran: a phenomenological study

BackgroundMultiple gestations present numerous physical, psychological, social, and economic challenges for women. Understanding the problem-solving experiences of pregnant women carrying multiple can be invaluable. This study aimed to explore the experiences of Iranian women with multiple gestations.MethodsThis descriptive phenomenological study utilized purposive sampling and continued until data saturation. Data collection involved in-depth semi-structured interviews, with analysis performed using Colaizzi’s 7-step method. MAXQDA software was employed for data management.ResultsThis study involved 12 women with multiple gestations. The average age of the participants was 33.76 ± 6.22 years, and 9 were pregnant with triplets. The data were categorized into four primary themes: the paradox of emotions, the pregnancy prison, immersion in fear, and the crystallization of maternal love, encompassing 17 sub-themes.ConclusionPregnant women with multiple gestations undergo various changes and experience conflicting emotions. Enhancing their ability to adapt to and accept numerous pregnancies can be achieved through supportive, personalized, and family-centered care, along with improvements and revisions in care policies for multiple gestations.

“I Want to Satisfy Two Kinds of Love”: Filial Piety, Mother-Daughter Bonding, and Romantic Love in Feng Yuanjun’s Short Stories

ABSTRACT: This paper examines filial piety, mother-daughter bonding, and romantic love in the short stories of Feng Yuanjun (1900–1974). I argue that filial piety and mother-daughter bonding are not always harmonious but rather are constructed antithetically, demonstrating the complexity of female kinship in Chinese women’s literature. Furthermore, maternal love is depicted as permanent and transcendent while romantic love is transient and happenstance. Mothers in Feng’s works are the moral force of the entire family and a source of love and support for their daughters, challenging the prevailing conception that Chinese mothers are merely agents of Confucian patriarchy. Overall, I assert that Feng Yuanjun’s works complement, revise, and undermine the male-centered anti-filial piety and anti-family discourse of the May Fourth movement, departing from the individualistic free love model.

From Tendencies and Drives to Affectivity and Ethics: Husserl and Scheler on the Mother–Child Relationship

The reassessment of intentionality as “tendency” or “drive,” already important when the intentionality at stake designates the directedness of lived experiences toward a particular object, might be even more crucial when the orientation toward others is concerned. How do drives and affects intermingle within our intersubjective life and fashion our relations to others? The present paper will address this question by focusing on a particular or even primary kind of intersubjectivity: the mother–child relationship, that received a particular, yet still insufficiently noticed attention in early phenomenology. Scheler and Husserl both analyse this relationship, indeed, in terms that imply drive intentionality as well as affective intentionality (that is, for what concerns the mother, maternal instinct and maternal love). In their view, this relation also has a crucial ethical significance, and may even be taken to be paradigmatic for ethical relationships as such. Accordingly, drive intentionality is understood as an instinctive orientation toward others, that love takes up and develops, thus providing an affective and even instinctive ground for ethical behaviour. All this imples the depart from an ethics grounded on the primacy and sufficiency of reason.

‘Her Work of Love’: Forced Separations, Maternal Grief, and Enslaved Mothers’ Emotional Practices in the Antebellum US South

ABSTRACT This article considers enslaved mothers’ emotional responses to the separation of their children. While slavery studies scholars have discussed the individual impact sales had on enslaved people, and historians of emotion have explored white communities’ understandings of both white maternal love and enslaved emotion, few studies have explored how events such as sale shaped enslaved women's own emotional understandings, practices, experiences and expressions. Guided by enslaved women's own testimony, this article argues that enslaved women created their own, gendered, emotional worlds in response to their experiences of sale – their own conceptions of love and grief, ways of expressing their emotion, and collective emotional practices in the aftermath of separation. Not only individual responses to emotional pain, their collective emotional practices must also be viewed as acts of refusal to submit to slave trading practices, white emotional standards and racialized emotional ideologies. Through loving and grieving actively, enslaved women maintained their maternal bonds in the face of both practical and ideological attempts to decimate them.

#MOTHERHOODWITHOUTJUDGMENT: negotiations of meanings of guilt and maternal love among consumers of O Boticário

#MOTHERHOODWITHOUTJUDGMENT: negotiations of meanings of guilt and maternal love among consumers of O Boticário

A Study on the Construction of the Mother Figure in the Chinese Comedy Film “Hi, Mom”

After entering the 21st century, the scale and technology of China’s film industry have developed rapidly. In the meantime, Chinese comedy films as an important part of China’s film industry have also received more and more attention. The Chinese comedy film “Hi, Mom” released in 2021 has won numerous awards and reputations for its humorous style and tribute to maternal love. This study takes “Hi, Mom” as a typical case to deeply investigate how the film constructs the image of the mother from multiple dimensions. In addition, under the guidance of Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) theory, this study focuses on five main aspects: plot design, facial expressions, background music, iconic symbols and clothing style of the mother in the film for in-depth analysis and discussion. The main findings of this study provided several new perspectives and findings for other case studies on “Hi, Mom”, and further provided more references for other studies on the theme of “mother image”. The discussion of this study shows the multi-dimensional construction of specific character images by different elements in this film, which settled an important platform for the filming of related theme films in the future.

Pengaruh Relaksasi Pernapasan Terhadap Intensitas Nyeri Pada Persalinan Kala I Di PMB Erlina Herawati Tahun 2023

Maternal who is difficult to adapt to the pain of labor can cause uncoordinated uterine contractions which can lead to prolongation of the first stage of labor and impaired fetal well-being. The purpose of this study was to see whether there was an effect of respiratory relaxation on the intensity of the first stage labor pain in the maternal love clinic Erlina Herawati, sub-district in 2023. This type of quantitative research used the One Group Pre Test- Post Test Design method with a population of all inpartum mothers in April 2023- June 2023 and a sample of 15 respondents. The results that have been obtained during the study including before the treatment showed mild pain by 2 respondents (13.3%), moderate pain by 6 respondents (40.0%), severe pain by 7 respondents (46.7%). Meanwhile, after treatment of mild pain 8 respondents (53.3%), moderate pain 4 respondents (26.7%), severe pain 3 respondents (20.0%). From the results of the study, it was found that the effect of before being treated and after being treated had a significant change in pain in the mother in labor. Therefore, it is hoped that in the future midwives in clinics will be able to facilitate mothers in giving birth by relaxing breathing it can reduce pain during labor, especially during the first stage of labor.

Nurturing Bonds Of Resilence: Motherhood in for The Love of a Son By Jean Sasson

The experiences of two Afghan mothers that serve as living examples of the strength of maternal love, selflessness, and the unwavering resolve of parents to care for and protect their children despite unfathomable hardship. The article is a powerful reminder of the resiliency of mothers that endures across generations and even the most challenging situations.

On the Rewriting of The Character Image of Akutagawa Ryunosuke's "Du Zichun" and The Reasons

Akutagawa Ryunosuke's classic short story "Du Zichun" is based on the classical Chinese Tang legend "The Legend of Du Zichun", and is also a children's literature work. Akutagawa rewrote the image of the protagonist Du Zichun and the immortal incarnate in the original text, which is significantly different from the original work.The rewritten Du Zichun has independent ideas, and the immortal incarnate becomes an enlightener, abandoning the Taoist ideas in the original work. This article explores and analyzes the reasons for the rewriting, including Akutagawa's concern for children's enlightenment and education, his call for maternal love, and his deep interest in classical Chinese literature.

Saint Louis Montfort’s Perfect Consecration “Totus Tuus”

The consecration to Mary, as taught by Saint Louis de Montfort, is a profound and transformative spiritual practice that has touched the lives of countless believers throughout the centuries. At the heart of Montfort's teaching is the understanding that Mary, as the Mother of Jesus and our spiritual mother, plays a vital role in our journey toward God. Through the act of consecration, we entrust ourselves entirely to Mary's care and guidance, acknowledging her as our advocate, intercessor, and protector. This act of consecration is not a mere formality but a profound commitment to live our lives in imitation of Mary's virtues, surrendering our will to hers and allowing her to lead us closer to her Son, Jesus Christ. By consecrating ourselves to Mary, we open ourselves to her powerful maternal love, inviting her to mold and shape us into instruments of God's grace, and to deepen our relationship with her Son. In essence, the consecration to Mary is an invitation to walk the path of holiness under her guidance, trusting in her maternal care as we strive to live authentic Christian lives. In St. Louis Montfort’s teaching, there exist two vital elements of the Totus Tuus consecration, namely: the nature of the consecration and the practices of the consecration. It has four fundamental characteristics that remarkably reflect the scriptural aspect of the consecration. There are also the so-called interior and exterior practices that provide people the knowledge of how to concretely bring the consecration to reality.

Sapamochanam (The Curse Liberation), A Kathakali Play by Sadanam Harikumar

Abstract: This play is a new interpretation of Urvashi and Arjuna from the epic Mahabharata . Immortal Urvashi of heaven was the life partner of mortal emperor Pururavas of earth, Arjuna’s fortieth ancestor. The story is that Urvashi, assigned to be an eternal virgin who was denied motherhood, experiences the bliss of motherhood because of Arjuna. Indra, Arjuna’s father, has brought him to heaven so that he might annihilate Indra’s enemies. Urvashi, who has fallen in love with Arjuna, approaches him for love but is rejected by Arjuna. Urvashi curses Arjuna to become a eunuch. Arjuna, who has realized that Urvashi was Pururavas’ wife, tells her in despair that she is no different from his biological mother Kunti and his stepmother Indrani, Indra’s wife. Urvashi’s dormant motherhood bursts forth as she hears this. At the end of the story, Urvashi embraces Arjuna with maternal love, lays him on her lap, and sings a lullaby. Arjuna and Urvashi are the protagonists of this play. The other characters include Urvashi’s two friends and two nymphs who appear in the interlude.

How to Talk about the Loss of Maternal Love: The Case of Tereza Boučková’s Novel The Year of the Rooster

The aim of this article is to explore the way in which the literary voice expressing the experience of the loss of maternal love can be constructed. In the Western cultural mainstream, the notion of the sanctity of the mother-child bond strongly prevails, which results in the normative expectation of mothers to identify entirely with the maternal role. Deliberations are based on the analysis of the autobiographical novel Rok kohouta by Czech writer Tereza Boučková. The article tries to answer the question whether providing testimony about such a painful experience is more difficult, or perhaps easier, in the case of adoptive mothers

A Web-Based Intervention to Address Risk Factors for Maternal Morbidity and Mortality (MAMA LOVE): Development and Evaluation Study.

Maternal mortality in the United States is a public health crisis and national emergency. Missed or delayed recognition of preventable life-threatening symptoms and untimely treatment of preventable high-risk medical conditions have been cited as key contributors to the nation's worsening mortality rates. Effective strategies are urgently needed to address this maternal health crisis, particularly for Black birthing populations. Morbidity and Mortality Assessment: Lifting Outcomes Via Education (MAMA LOVE) is a web-based platform that focuses on the identification of maternal morbidity and mortality risk factors. The purpose of this paper is to present the conceptualization, development, heuristics, and utility evaluation of the web-based maternal mortality risk assessment and educational tool MAMA LOVE. A user-centered design approach was used to gain feedback from clinical experts and potential end users to ensure that the tool would be effective among groups most at risk for maternal morbidity and mortality. A heuristic evaluation was conducted to evaluate usability and need within the current market. Algorithms describing key clinical, mental health, and social conditions were designed using digital canvas software (Miro) and incorporated into the final wireframes of the revised prototype. The completed version of MAMA LOVE was designed in Figma and built with the SurveyJS platform. The creation of the MAMA LOVE tool followed three distinct phases: (1) the content development and creation of an initial prototype; (2) the feedback gathering and usability assessment of the prototype; and (3) the design, development, and testing of the final tool. The tool determines the corresponding course of action using the algorithm developed by the authors. A total of 38 issues were found in the heuristic evaluation of the web tool's initial prototype. Maternal morbidity and mortality is a public health crisis needing immediate effective interventions. In the current market, there are few digital resources available that focus specifically on the identification of dangerous symptoms and risk factors. MAMA LOVE is a tool that can address that need by increasing knowledge and providing resources and information that can be shared with health care professionals.

Paternal and maternal love for married and unmarried sons and daughters

Parental love has been studied in relation to infants and younger children. The adult sons and daughters who marry and become parents constitute another category of ‘children’. As the earlier literature did not explore parental love in relation to these ‘adult married sons and daughters’ earlier, the current study was the first-ever effort in this regard. The study was conducted in two phases and involved 982 purposely selected participants. A new scale to measure love was also developed and validated during the two phases of the study. The findings revealed significant differences in paternal and maternal love between married and unmarried sons and daughters. The findings of the study would serve as a novel contribution to the existing literature on parental love. The newly developed ‘Love Scale’ would facilitate future researchers in exploring love in a general way that could be applied to all possible relationships.