Wild With Child Outlaw Mothers and Feminist Representations of Maternal Power

This book invites readers to step lightly into a transformative realm where the conventional narratives of pregnancy, motherhood, and femininity are defied, reshaped, and celebrated. In response to decades of limited portrayals of pregnant women and mothers as merely ‘ good,’ ‘ bad,’ or ‘ monstrous,’ this anthology intervenes with a diverse array of contributions from scholars, artists, activists, and those who have lived the journey of motherhood. It brings forth a colourful mosaic of perspectives that push beyond the confines of societal norms, presenting images, writings, and creative expressions bursting with authenticity and power. This anthology is an affirmation, a celebration, and a transformative journey that invites all to join in reframing the pregnant body and the lived experiences of motherhood, and in to deeper engagements with maternal feminist writing and thought.

Elana Finestone is a lawyer, feminist academic, and, in 2022, became a first time mother. Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich is a lawyer, law teacher, and mom to four wonderful children who are now teens and adults. She is author, editor, and co-author of several Demeter Press collaborations, among other books.

1. Introduction Elana Finestone and Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich 2 Pregnancy 2. Images Clara Kundin 8 3. Linda Greene Finestone Lilith: From Rejection to Redemption 13 4. Clara Kundin, Pregnancy Photography: Beyond the Gender Binary 15 5. Sarah Sahagian A Tough Pill To Swallow: Pregnancy, Misogyny, and My Mental Health 29 Birth 6. Andrea DeKeseredy 36 We are Badass Moms: A Narrative Inquiry into Women's Experiences of Pregnancy and Delivery during the COVID-19 Pandemic Jennifer Cox Five Poems about Working Through Birth Trauma 68 Motherhood Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich 74 Still Wild: Towards Empowered Solo Mothering of Teens Guinevere Clark 78 Journeys into Liberation: Re-writing the Maternal ‘ I’ in Poetry on Domestic Abuse. Hazel Katherine Larkin 83 Abreast of Things May Isaac 95 Preserving the Self by Losing it and Finding the Self by Preserving it Andrea O’ Reilly 121 There must be something good about me” : Dystopian Satire, Maternal Resistance, and the Undoing of Normative Motherhood in Jessamine Chan’ s The School for Good Mothers