Philosophical inquiry into pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering is a growing area of interest to academic philosophers. This volume brings together a diverse group of philosophers to speak about topics in this reemerging area of philosophical inquiry, taking up new themes, such as maternal aesthetics, and pursuing old ones in new ways, such as investigating stepmothering as it might inform and ground an ethics of care. The theoretical foci of the book include feminist, existential, ethical, aesthetic, phenomenological, social and political theories. These perspectives are then employed to consider many dimensions of pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering, which are of central importance to human existence, but are only rarely discussed in philosophical cannons. Topics include pregnancy and embodiment, breast-feeding, representations - or the lack thereof - of pregnant and birthing women, adoption, and post-partum motherhood.

Introduction Sheila Lintott and Maureen Sander-Staudt I. Maternal Norms, Practices, and Insights 1. Sara Ruddick, Transracial Adoption, and the Goals of Maternal Practice Jean Keller 2. Where Did I Go? The Invisible Postpartum Mother Jennifer Benson and Allison Wolf 3. Into the Mouths of Babes: The Moral Responsibility to Breastfeed Christine Overall and Tabitha Bernard 4. Tales from the Tit: The Moral and Political Implications of Useless Lactational Suffering Lissa Skitolsky 5. Motherhood and the Workings of Disgust Sherri Irvin II. Maternal Roles and Relations 6. The Practical and Theoretical Challenges of Mothering with Disabilities: A Feminist Standpoint Analysis Maeve M. O'Donovan 7. Mothers, Children with Disability, and Post-Modern Sainthood Christine A. James 8. Psychoanalytic Feminism and the Dynamics of Mothering a Daughter Alison Stone 9. Why Don't Philosophers Tell Their Mothers' Stories? Philosophy, Motherhood, and Imaginative Resistance Joshua Shaw 10. On Stepmothers as Hybrid Beings & World-Travelers: Towards a New Model for Care-ful Ethics Beckey Sukovaty III. Maternal Phenomena, Phenomenology, and Aesthetics 11. Creating Life, Giving Birth, and Learning to Die Brooke Schueneman 12. The Pregnant Body as a Public Body: An Occasion for Community Care, Instrumental Coercion, and a Singular Collectivity Julie Piering 13. Becoming Bovine: A Phenomenology of Early Motherhood, and its Practical, Political Consequences Sally Fischer 14. The Aesthetics of Childbirth Peg Brand and Paula Granger 15. The Sublimity of Gestating and Giving Birth: Toward a Feminist Conception of the Sublime Sheila Lintott