Motherhood is a central fact of many women's lives. Despite this, relatively little has been written about how maternity and childcare affect women's lives. This book looks at the relationship between women's identity and the capacity for motherhood. It examines the changing social and economic conditions in which women become mothers or, in fewer cases, do not have children; the opportunities women have to control their own fertility and the implications of 'new' reproductive technologies. This book brings together a wide range of topics, as well as considering some of the contradictions and neglected questions in feminist thinking about reproduction and childrearing.