Motherhood and infertility in Ireland [electronic resource] : understanding the presence of absence / Jill Allison.

Issued as part of UPCC book collections on Project MUSE.

Acknowledgements -- Acronyms -- Introduction : conceiving the presence of absence -- Famine's traces : hunger for motherhood, family, fertility -- Motherhood contested : re-thinking the woman/mother paradigm in Ireland -- Conceiving nonconformity : challenging hetero-normative meanings of (in)fertility -- Conceiving of grieving -- Eggs, sperm and conceptions of a moral nature -- Conceptions of contention : donor challenge to the dimensions of relatedness -- Embryos and the ethics of ambivalence -- Conclusion : confirmation and contestation in a changing Ireland -- Afterword -- Bibliography -- Notes and references -- Index.

Infertility stories show us how the once seamless connection between marriage, motherhood, sex and procreation in Ireland is contested. Through the stories of women and men facing infertility, the book brings to life the forces that shape the idea of motherhood and the way many women see themselves, not as victims of circumstance, but as agents and beneficiaries of changing social values and expectations. The book also examines how religious, medical and state institutions employ the meanings of "nature" and science in procreative endeavors in an effort to be the dominant voice in a conversation about an ongoing pronatalist politics. The use of reproductive technologies is discussed in relation to the historical and contemporary debates about reproductive choice. The dilemmas people face when using assisted reproduction technologies also highlight the complexity and contingency of the local morality in which reproductive politics operates in Ireland. The book makes an important contribution to the story of change in Ireland as it represents the current cultural context in which people are making decisions about family building.

Description based on print version record.