In this classic re-issue, Ann Oakley interviewed 60 women to find out what it’s really like to have a baby. She uses on the stories mothers tell to discuss whether and why women want to become pregnant, how they imagine motherhood to be, the experience of birth, post-natal depression, feeding and caring routines and the challenges for the domestic division of labour and to fathers.This important book was the first to examine first-time motherhood in the words of those experiencing it, and it continues to influence generations of researchers today.