I Am a Mother Because I Wanted to—I Am a Grandmother Because Others See Me That Way—Motherhood as a Critical Life Event for Ageing Women

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyse women’s perceptions of their transition to motherhood in the late decades of their female adulthood. The research problem was whether and to what extent the meaning of the transition to motherhood changes for women from different birth cohorts. Our sample included mothers from two generational cohorts: 50 women in middle adulthood (M = 47.66), and 52 women in late adulthood (M = 69.35). The results were analysed using qualitative data analysis methods, including frequency analysis and qualitative narrative analysis. Based on the analyses, the category of transition to motherhood was found to be a standard feature for all the women studied in middle and late adulthood. In both older generations, some women recalled the birth of their first child as a coping with change. Indicators of criticality were extracted from their narratives: potential bivalence, the unpredictability of consequences, and longevity of life changes. The results showed that the generation of women in late adulthood exhibited significantly fewer difficulties related to their own motherhood. The semantic dominant of the narratives studied is motherhood as taking responsibility for another person.