The challenging theme of motherhood
Roxana MARINESCU and Mihaela RABU
We, AnA members, decided to make a maternity issue of the Journal last
spring when a group of artists organized the exhibition with the title " Mother and
Child" in "Caminul Artei" Galleries in Bucharest. Actually, some of their
work is to be found in this issue of the Journal.
We first studied the dictionary entry for ‘maternity’, but
decided that it was far more to this concept than that dry definition. It is an
individual, physiological and psychological state, that women assume for themselves,
conscienciously or not. It is a cultural and gender imposition of the society we live in,
and at the same time it is a social institution with clear-cut gender norms and
ideologies. Connected to it is the ‘maternal instinct’, a cliché for most
people, men and women alike. There is no such thing as a good mother-a bad mother, as
there is no such thing as a good father-a bad father; there are parents and
‘norms’ imposed by society and prejudices. Maternity as an institution has an
evolution from a country to another and from an epoch to another. If women are the ones
carrying the babies and feeding them, this does not mean that they are the only ones that
have to take care of the babies. Women want to be identified, as Simone de Beauvoir wrote,
by their own personalities, and not by the fact that they are housewives, wives, mothers
– roles ascribed to them by society. In this issue of AnALize we tried to address
some of the aspects of maternity in Romania, past and present, and not only.
We discussed about maternity as a myth and as a reality (Cristina Stefan), about
abortion as the last solution (Anca Jugaru). Ana Consuela Georgescu wrote about some new
concepts of reproduction, and Doina Dimitriu about reproductive rights. Iulia Hasdeu
introduces a new column – ‘Femin(in)ology’. ‘Lived Motherhood’
present three personal experiences concerning maternity, and ‘(Un)usual Careers’
introduces an interview on mother and child legislation in Romania. Stefania Mihailescu
presents a fragment from the first magazine dealing with the issue. Iulia Hasdeu discusses
the question of mothers infected with the HIV virus in a film review of "Al about my
Mother" by Pedro Almodovar.
We are aware we did not address many aspects of maternity, such as late
maternity, private partnership in Romania, the history of the institution of maternity,
the problems of gay couples wanting children, the situations of women who cannot have
children for health reasons, social disapproval for women who can but don’t want to
have children, the attitude of the Church towards maternity, different attitudes towards
maternity in the urban and rural areas, growing men’s awareness towards fatherhood
and many others. Maybe in a following issue…
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The
girl-mothers. The institution of maternity between myth and reality
Cristina STEFAN
This article presents the institution of maternity between myth and reality. Maternity,
according to Cristina Stefan, can be seen on the one hand as a personal experience and on
the other hand as an institution in the sociological sense of the term. Maternity appears
as a specific way of acting and looking at the world (seen with a mother’s eyes), as
a social datum – which acts as a punishment for the person in discussion, determining
an adequate behaviour. Women are either women-without-children or women-mothers depending
on whether they have children or not.
The hypothesis is that all links with the world have changed when women became mothers.
The study examines some aspects dealing with the use of space conditioned by general
cultural elements, and also by internal rules of the organization of the Mother-Child
Centre, with the distinction private/public space. The world seen with a mother’s
eyes is a space rather public than individual, which can be used by those who take
maternal values into account.
Social actions are made within the framework of maternity values if this is useful,
functional for itself, and not in the opposite case. The lack of maternal ethics from the
public sphere is an explanation for social unjustice, wars and even ecological disasters.
The virtues of contemporary state as a minimal state, the author argues, is justified in
order to defend individual rights and to guarantee the social space in which people can
use those rights.
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Abortion: "the last
solution" instead of "the only solution"
Anca JUGARU
The paper attempts to bring into discussion abortion, contraception and family planning
problems from a gender perspective in the context of free choice maternity. It begins with
a historical review of abortion, contraception and family planning, followed by ideas
regarding the gender dimensions of the three discussed subjects, ending with some personal
considerations on the abortion legislation in Romania. The article doesn’t want to
plead for abortion, but in favour of the women and couple’s free and responsible
decision regarding the number of children they want to have.
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Another kind of maternity: medically assisted human
reproduction
Ana Consuela GEORGESCU PADIN
Along the centuries the failure of a couple to have children was the woman’s. In
reality now most of the causes of sterility and infertility are known, they are thought to
belong equally to both partners of the couple.
For a woman the life without children is often an empty one. Having children is her
biological right, which sometimes can be only a dream…
The separation of reproduction and sexuality is one of the most spectacular
performances of medicine and biology, through modern techniques of Medically Assissted
Human Reproduction ( HRMA), giving a chance to the 10 % infertile couples to have
children.
The fight for a voluntary maternity is part of human rights. The Justice Court of the
Council of Europe gave a status to the freedom of using one’s own body through
contraception, abortion, voluntary sterilization and HRMA access.
HRMA is a series of clinical, biological and laboratory actions, which allow artificial
insemination (AI), in vitro fertilization (IVF), embrio transfer (ET), as well as all the
techniques with the aim to procreate outside the natural process.
The new reproduction technologies created a new family concept and a redefinition of
maternity and paternity in society…
HRMA is allowed in the situation of heterosexual couples, married for at least two
years, and only after a written agreement and after the failure of other methods of
sterility treatement, by avoiding the risk of transmitting other illnesses, by stating
before the birth the status of the baby, without the possibility of choosing the sex of
the baby, by keeping the donor anonymous and by exclusion of profit.
AI inside the couple (with the husband’s sperm) gives no juridical
interpretations. Still AI of a widow is not accepted in most of the cases, after taking in
consideration the right of the child of having a "normal" family. AI with donor
sperm is done only with the agreement of both spouses and with keeping the donor
anonymous, without any lineage connection.
IVF is the technique by which fecundation takes place outside the human body, by
forming human embrios which will be transferred in the uterus of the infertile woman
prepared for gestation. The main dilemma of this technique is the numerous embrios. The
embrios left after ET can be kept to be used in another parental project, donated to
another infertile couple, used for medical research or destroyed.
The status of the human embrio is not clear, it is considered a"potential human
being" or even a human being, with all the rights of the unborn child. . That is why
creating them for research is not allowed, and their destruction can be considered a
crime. Research on embrios is allowed in order to make a diagnosis, by not hurting them
and only until the 14-th day. Keeping them is limited in time (1-10 years). Donation of
embrios is done respecting the same principles as in the case of sperm and ovules
donation.
The biggest juridical problems appear in the case of the surogate mother (SM) in HRMA.
SM or "borrowed mother" is the woman who accepts to carry a pregnancy to term
instead of an infertile woman and to have a child for her, after a contract signed with
the infertile couple.
When such contracts are free of charge and without a material
purpose they could beconsidered an expression of the woman’s natural right of
becoming a mother. But this is more and more rarely the case, the economic and financial
factors dominating.
This contract of borrowing the uterus is a form of slavery, the SM having to abstain
from consuming certain products, she has to have a strict life and even not to have sexual
intercourse during pregnancy.
The principle "MATER SEMPRE CERTA EST" is now meaningless, as the SM who
gives birth to the child is not the child’s genetic mother, the same being the
situation in donations of ovocites and embrios. The law accepts that "PATER INCERTUS
EST" and allows for exams of paternity, but in the case of HRMA this is a condition
in the parteners’ contract. When there is the suspicion that the pregnancy is not the
result of HRMA, the exam of paternity can be asked; when sperm or embrios from donors is
used this demand cannot be made.
Therefore the child born by a SM has to be adopted by its family, so we can talk of
"adoption by anticipation".
The final and generous aim of all these techniques is the baby. Its rights have
precedent over the "rights for the child".
By everything it has done, science makes the doctors face conflicts of conscience
towards the patients or the healthy persons, along the road from birth to death. The
doctors’ behaviour has to agree with the respect towards human beings. Bioethics is a
link between science and human rights and is the guardian of the use of science.
The majority of countries have laws and regulations about HRMA. Although in Romania
there are some medical centres of this type and such techniques are being used, including
SM, the legal framework is missing.
The existence of legislation will be a guarantee of patient and doctor protection and
will allow the correct evaluation of medical actions.
All that the described aspects do is draw attention towards these new and expensive
ways of becoming a mother and towards the way in which they are discussed, from a
bioethical perspective in some countries, but the problems are not solved yet.
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Reflections on reproductive health
Doina DIMITRIU
There are now clear contradictions and disparities in the field of family planning,
sexual and reproductive health between countries of Western Europe and those of Central
and Eastern Europe. Therefore there are countries with the highest rates of abortion and
mother's mortality rates, and countries with the lowest rates. These discrepancy comes
from different experiences, happy or not, in this field. Our country still has the memory
of an unhappy experience of a pro-natalist policy used as a political instrument of
control of personal life and of the limitation of individual freedoms. After 1990, along
legalization of abortion, we have been going through a period of "transition from
abortion to contraception" which presupposes the dialog between the important
transformations in the medical field and the important transformations in the medical
field and the important changes in the mentality and behaviour of people. At the same
time, having the right to free choice in all fields of reproduction and sexuality, the
admission of the fundamental human rights, represents the principle of equality of chances
between women and men. The efforts of creating the national network of family planning are
not sufficient if they are not placed in the context of efficient programmes of informing
and educating, if they are not adapted to the areas and to the needs of different
population groups.
The efficiency of the policies and programmes in the field of reproductive health can
be seen in correspondence with the specific health indicators (mother's mortality rate,
abortion rate, children's mortality rate) but also with the ones regarding living
standards, food situation and access to education. The action plans presuppose a new
vision of the capacity of self-evaluation and of equal responsibility of men and women for
reproductive and parental life. At the same time, a coherent strategy will reconfirm the
necessity for the continuation of cooperation with social partners, especially in rural
areas where it is mostly needed.
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Matriarchy: feminist myths and struggles
Maria Rosaria SPANO
This article treats matriarchy as social representation. Invented in XIXth century by
evolutionist masculine thinking revived by some radical feminists from the late 70', this
myth is very much criticized by the anthropologists. The author shows that at the
theoretical level to legitimate the social construction of the traditional condition of
women whose core is the reproductive and mothering function serves very well, unlike
empowering them for political action.
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Why I am not (yet) a mother
Cristiana FAUR
The article deals with the specific situation of a woman in her thirties who decided
not to have children (yet). She talks about the tradition of women-mothers and sincerely
brings about the reasons why she took her decision.
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How to become a mother - Experiences
from Austria
Gertraud LADNER
The article deals with the experiences of ‘late’ motherhood in Austria. While
discussing her own experiences of pregnancy and birth, Gertraud Ladner also presents the
situation of laws and medical care in contemporary Austria. Such details as tests and
medical check-ups are interestingly intermingled with personal considerations about the
status of motherhood and changes in the author’s professional life. Motherhood is
"a gift from God", a wonder the author shares with us.
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In fact, I am their mother
Alina OANCEA
The article contains a short analysis of some unfortunately traditional teaching
materials.
Children learn rigid gender roles directly through education, by imitation and
identification.
Games such as "What is Adina doing?", "What is mother doing?" make
distinctions clear: mothers/women have a reproductive role (includes home activities
usually done by women: raising and educating children, as well as washing, preparing food,
cleaning, shopping for the family), while men have kept a productive role (activities made
by men and women for which the former are paid).
How could we get the children ready for the responsibilities of being a mother or a
father if we permanently come across teaching materials full of contradictory messages?!
For my analysis I found inspiration in observing children during the last two years I
spent teaching. I noticed that children can only play the roles of their own sex (the
little girl the role of mother, the little boy of father). By playing such games they
identify with their parents.
If I add concrete life situations to such manipulation through materials, then I become
worried by "maternity" models they assimilate in this period. That is why I try
to use alternative games, empathize with their situation, by elaborating texts without
gender discrimination, proposals for changing the syllabus, in order to eliminate the
persistent myths about women. I take care to play with them telling them about men-fathers
and women-mothers, but also about women of science, women-astronauts, women-state leaders.
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