This book examines women's experiences of motherhood in England in the years between 1945 and 2000. Based on a new body of 160 oral history interviews, the book offers the first comprehensive historical study of the experience of motherhood in the second half of the twentieth century.

Angela Davis is a Research Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Warwick

1. Introduction
2. Family and community: surveying women and the family
3. Educating mothers: family, school and antenatal education
4. Pregnancy and childbirth: antenatal care, birth and postnatal care
5. Experts and childcare 'bibles': mothers and advice literature
6. Working and caring: women's labour inside and outside the home
7. Breadwinners and homemakers: ideals of men and women in the family
8. Conclusions
Select bibliography
Index