Doing Becoming a Mother: The Gendering of Parenthood in Birth-Preparation Classes in Germany

Abstract

Although birth-preparation classes are the most important institution for parents-to-be, they have largely been disregarded in sociological research. This empirical study aims to examine the role birth-preparation classes in Germany play in the extensive gendering during the transition to parenthood. We combine ethnography of birth-preparation classes with a content analysis of text material offered by professional associations of midwives. This empirical investigation aims to show that today’s birth-preparation classes highlight differences between men and women as well as between women without children and mothers, interconnect them with gendered attributions of child care and labor and legitimize these differences through naturalization. Thus, birth-preparation classes introduce a gendered distribution of labor as early as the antenatal phase and thereby function as institutions promoting a process of regendering and retraditionalization.

Citation

Müller, M., Zillien, N. and Gerstewitz, J. (2019), "Doing Becoming a Mother: The Gendering of Parenthood in Birth-Preparation Classes in Germany", Costa, R.P. and Blair, S.L. (Ed.) Childbearing and the Changing Nature of Parenthood: The Contexts, Actors, and Experiences of Having Children (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 14), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 79-96. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1530-353520190000014004