Motherhood is the completion of a woman’s life Essay

Introduction

Even from a tender age, every girls dream is to be blessed with children when she grows up, and to be a loving mother to her children. Having children is therefore highly treasured by women if the timing is right.

It, however, goes without saying that women are considered to have passed their prime after they become mothers, and they are automatically alienated from a number of puerile social activities, and affairs of the youth (¹). This has led made women dread motherhood to the extent that a myriad of them are unwilling to become mothers after they accidentally become pregnant.

Since a woman can become a mother even at teenage, there is need for a change in the stereotypical ideas held by people that motherhood is the completion of a woman’s life. Women should thus be given a chance to live their life to the fullest regardless of whether they are mothers or not. This will lead to more self discovery and self advancement in young mothers, and it is likely to reduce a number of vices.

Reasons why this statement is false

The statement “motherhood is the completion of a woman’s life” is false from a number of perspectives. For example, consider the word “life” in this statement to mean the socio-economic and intellectual advancement of an individual. In this particular perspective, the statement is false because a woman can substantially advance her socio-economic status as well as her intellectual status even after becoming a mother (²).

Thus motherhood is not the completion of a woman’s socio-economic and intellectual advancement. This mentality is an archaic way of viewing life, and thus it can be dismissed as a mere stereotype since it is baseless and thus it has no meaningful justification.

The sad part of it is that some societies embrace this stereotype, and thus a myriad of women have been forced to make wrong decisions for fear of becoming mothers. The truth is that having children (being a mother) should come with a feeling of accomplishment even if the timing is imperfect. This is evidenced by the bliss that motherhood brings to the lives of women who plan their lives well (³).

A woman who bears children without a good plan for the same should also view the children as a blessing and live each day with the pride of accomplishment. This will ensure that the vices associated with unplanned pregnancies are reduced, and that people become more responsible regarding their sexual behaviour. The following paragraph takes a look at the impacts that the societies that uphold this stereotype has had on women, and what can be done to improve the status quo.

Repercussions of this stereotype

The stereotype that motherhood is, kind of, the completion of a woman’s life has had numerous repercussions on the contemporary society. In order to understand the extent to which this notion has affected the society, it is important to bear in mind that there is no woman who likes being associated with old age, and no woman likes being old-fashioned.The main negative effects of this stereotype have been evident in young women.

For most young women, pregnancy is some kind of a nightmare that should at one time end before delivery. Most young women, therefore, fear the responsibility and status that comes with being a mother and they end up procuring abortions whenever they get pregnant (⁴). This stereotype has also made some women neglect their children in terms of breast feeding, and it has also increased cases of surrogate motherhood. From a moral point of view, this is a very serious repercussion since it can be speculated that with a respectable status being attributed to motherhood, many young girl will be proud to deliver children when they accidentally get pregnant.

Conclusion

As evidenced in the discussion above, the stereotypical idea that women complete their life when they become mothers is ungrounded. This misconception has led young women to be involved in many unethical activities in a bid to preserve their youthfulness. As stated above, many young women who accidentally become pregnant are forced to abort their pregnancies for fear of the disgrace that comes with being a young mother.

These occurrences are very unfortunate especially considering the fact that some of these young girls may be willing to keep their pregnancies. From this discussion, it is apparent that the idea of viewing motherhood as the completion of a woman’s life has more or less had purely negative effects on women, and the society at large. Such baseless stereotypes should be strictly discouraged at all costs to prevent them from becoming part of the society.

Bibliography

1. Grantly, Read. Childbirth Without Fear. London. Pollinger Limited. 2006.
2. Boulton, Georgina. On Being a Mother: a study of women with pre-school children. 2003. New York, Tavistock Publications.
3. Finer, Lawrence. 2003. “Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives”. 2003. Web.
4. Shockney, Heather. “How Becoming a Mother Has Changed My Life”. 2007.