canonical and autobiographical narratives of teenage mothers

CULTURE, HEALTH & SEXUALITY,

2001, VOL. 3, NO. 3, 279±294

Ì know I’m doing a good job’: canonical and autobiographical narratives of teenage mothers MAGGIE KIRKMAN, LYN HARRISON, LYNNE HILLIER and PRISCILLA PYETT Teenage pregnancy is typically presented as a problem to be solved, if not as an epidemic in need of urgent intervention. This paper reports on Australian research that examined the phenomenon of teenage motherhood from the perspective of the young women themselves. The theoretical frame of narrative was adopted in order to understand both the way in which the young mothers were making sense of their own lives, and the way in which they interpreted the canonical narrative of teenage motherhood. Interviews with 20 young mothers demonstrated both their awareness of the canonical narrative, in which they are judged and condemned, and their contrasting autobiographical narratives, in which they are represented as good mothers who are capable of learning the skills of motherhood. Although the women refused to emphasise the disadvantages of teenage motherhood, they acknowledged dif®culties. Throughout their autobiographical accounts, a `consoling plot’ was evident. Young women may be supported in their endeavour to emplot their lives to their own bene®t by family narratives of teenage motherhood.

Introduction

In 1996, nearly 12,500 teenagers gave birth in Australia (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, cited in Gray 1998b), accounting for 5.6% of all births (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1997). The birth rate among teenage girls (aged 15±19) in 1995 in Australia was 1 in 47, compared with 1 in 30 in the United Kingdom and 1 in 16 in the USA (Population Action International 1998). This relatively low rate has not prevented condemnation of teenage mothers by Australian politicians. The most publicized recent example is that of Pauline Hanson, leader of a rightwing party contesting federal politics. ThenÐSenator Hanson was quoted in a press release claiming that, `My concern is with those who start young with children out of wedlock and then repeat the performanceÐin many cases with a different man’. The press release announced her party’s policy of refusing government assistance to unmarried mothers beyond the ®rst child. Hanson (1998) continued, `The real ®gures for teenage sole parents receiving the pension when compared to population Maggie Kirkman is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Key Centre for Women’s Health in Society at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Lyn Harrison lectures in Health and Physical Education at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia. Priscilla Pyett is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Koori Health Research and Community Development Unit, University of Melbourne. All correspondence to be addressed to: Maggie Kirkman, Key Centre for Women’s Health in Society, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; e-mail [email protected] Culture, Health & Sexuality ISSN 1369-1058 print/ISSN 1464-5351 online q 2001 Taylor & Francis Ltd http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI:10.1080/13691050010026097

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growth show marked increases, a fact that has been hidden in the percentage ®gures usually stated’. In many countries, teenage pregnancy is typically presented as a problem to be solved (Forsyth and Palmer 1990), if not as an epidemic in need of urgent intervention (Scharf 1979, Whatley and Trudell 1993, Hanson 1998). Teenage mothers are a focus of social concern (Luker 1991, Furstenberg 1992, Zuravin and Di Blasio 1992, Gray 1998a), political controversy (e.g. Hanson 1998; see also Laws 1996), and academic research (e.g. Furstenberg et al. 1990, Kotagal 1993, Littlejohn 1996). It is common, even in academic research, to see teenage mothers represented as manifestations of a problem. Exceptions include ®nding increased family cohesiveness during the pregnancy of a teenage family member (Cervera 1994) and better self esteem and less conduct disorder in a sample of teenage mothers in comparison with a sample of sexuallyactive adolescent girls who were not mothers (Stiffman et al. 1990). This paper reports on recent research designed to examine the phenomenon of teenage motherhood from the perspective of the young women themselves. Our endeavour has much in common with that of Frith (1993), who collected accounts from single mothers of their parenting experiences. Frith found single mothers to be aware that they were stigmatized by society, in contrast to their own knowledge of themselves as mature and capable parents. Our study also re¯ects the goals of Croghan and Miell (1998) who used discourse analysis to examine the ways in which women who are designated `problem mothers’ take issue with that professional de®nition. As part of a larger study, we set out to discover from teenage mothers both how they understood themselves to be re¯ected in the eyes of other people, and how they described themselves as young women and as mothers. To do so, we adopted the theoretical frame of narrative. When narratives are constructed about people, experiences, and ideas, they serve to interpret and explain their subjects. By using the device of a plot to link events, people attempt to explain those events. By examining the plots of people’s narratives, researchers attempt to understand the way in which people make sense of their lives. Following Ricoeur (e.g. 1980), we take plot to be that narrative device which confers order, sequence, and meaning on a collection of otherwise isolated events. In the absence of emplotment, not only narrative episodes but lived experience itself appear to be little more than haphazard collections of events. In this paper, we look at examples of two types of narratives: canonical and autobiographical. There is a range of culturally-speci®c prototypes of plots which act as the scaffolding of our own life stories and through which they may be understood (see Good 1994): `My personal story is some version of a more general story of how life proceeds in my culture’ (Keen 1986: 175). Jerome Bruner (1986, 1987) has described these more general stories of lives as canonical life narratives. Borrowing from this narrative stock guides us in constructing and understanding our lives in ways which are appropriate to our cultures. Autobiographical narratives are not the work of a single author. They are dialogically constructed with those involved with the narrator, and are in¯uenced by narratives presented in popular culture. Autobiographical narratives are embedded in their cultures: they are structured in cultural terms and 1 use cultural forms. Although canonical narratives are guides for action and

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provide a standard for judging the actions of others, they are not deterministic for either an individual life course or the interpretation of a life. In examining the autobiographical narratives of teenage mothers, we can discern both the emplotment of their own lives and the canonical narrative of teenage mothers current in the dominant culture. It is an important aspect of narrative theory and research to differentiate autobiographical narratives (also called life stories) from life histories (also called biographies). Research into autobiographical narratives àims to investigate the subjective meaning of lives as they are told in the narratives of participants’ (Plummer 1995: 50). Whereas some researchers argue that life histories require con®rming evidence and triangulation (Hatch and Wisniewski 1995), autobiographical narratives are of interest in themselves. It is to understand and derive meaning from instances and events that these instances and events are emplotted. Narratives are not `simply representations of extralinguistic realities’, and they cannot be ìnvestigated empirically by recapturing those extralinguistic realities’ (Polkinghorne 1988: 159). Researching autobiographical narratives, therefore, is not to establish whether one is being told `the truth’, but to discover the way in which people understand and emplot their lives. The emplotment of one’s life undergoes constant revision as new experiences suggest new meanings for the life already lived and the life to come. It is necessary at the outset to distinguish narrative from discourse. Both relate to language. Discourse refers to the way in which language categorizes the social world (Parker 1992); discourse analysis emphasizes language as the unit of analysis rather than the individual actor (Wetherell et al. 1987). Narrative tends to focus more on the actors. However, we suggest that the fundamental distinction between the two concepts is that plot and time are inherent in narrative but not in discourse. Stated very simply, narrative is longitudinal, discourse is cross-sectional. Narrative relates to an individual (or group) life-course, which may be speci®c or typical. Although discussion is continuing on the subject of what de®nes narrative research (e.g. Hatch and Wisniewski 1995), there is a set of typical features that can also be identi®ed in our research method. The four typical features can be summarised as: (i) The recognition of the individual person; (ii) the recognition of the subjective dimension of lives and the importance of meaning; (iii) the recognition of the contribution of context to meaning; and (iv) the recognition of the collaborative construction of autobiographical accounts. Methods

Twenty young women aged 16±23 (who were aged 14±19 when they became mothers) volunteered to participate in the research. Participants were recruited through six community groups providing services for teenage mothers. The groups were located in the outer suburbs of Melbourne and a regional city in Victoria, Australia, in areas of low socio-economic status (positioned to serve the needs of the majority of teenage mothers). Some of the participants were living with the father of their child or a new partner; others lived alone in rented accommodation; or with parents, family, or friends. Most had

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one child; one woman had two children and one had three. The children were aged from a few months to 6 years. A few women reported terminating earlier pregnancies or experiencing a miscarriage. The majority of the young women had not completed secondary schooling. Two of the women identi®ed themselves as Kooris (indigenous Australians). Pseudonyms are used for the participants. Interviews

The interview schedule was developed from information provided by six focus groups (conducted in 1996) whose members were recruited from support groups for young mothers. The semi-structured interviews took place from December 1996 to February 1997. Each young woman was interviewed in her own home for about an hour by one of three female researchers. Interviews and focus group discussions were fully transcribed. Analysis

Interview transcripts were read and analysed (i) to extract demographic information and focal themes, (ii) to establish the underlying emplotment of individual interviews (i.e. how did each young mother interpret and explain her life as a whole?), (iii) to discern signi®cant themes across the corpus of interviews. Four outstanding themes were focused on: the contrast between the autobiographical narratives of the women and their perceptions of the canonical narrative of teenage mothers; the comparisons among their past and current narratives of the future and their current lives; the relationships between the young women and their male partners; and the extent, nature, 2 and source of support given to the young mothers. Transcripts were read again for information on the four themes, in the context of the underlying emplotment discerned in the ®rst reading. For example, if a young woman narrated experiences of unpleasant encounters with critics of teenage motherhood, this was assessed in relation to the contrast or concordance with her assessment of herself and with the emplotment of her life in general. Each narrative theme was then analysed into subcategories by sorting the blocks of text garnered from the interviews. However, by maintaining constant awareness of individual women through the summaries constructed in the ®rst two readings, we avoided interpreting quotations out of context. This process was determined by our goal of preserving the complexity of individual narratives while discerning similarities and differences among them. Findings The canonical narrative of teenage motherhood: Judgement and condemnation

Young mothers in this study were aware of the dominant canonical narrative of teenage motherhood: it is a story in which they are judged and


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condemned. The following lengthy quotation represents many of the matters raised by other young mothers, whilst also revealing the complex emplotment of pride in their motherhood alongside condemnation and de®ant defence. Mandy: I hate just people saying things . . . like, `You’re stupid, you should’ve waited’. But they would say it with a smile on their face, but I knew that they were serious and stuff, but it never got to me because I knew that I wanted to ®nish my school anyway, so it didn’t bother me. The only time I ever had problems was when [baby] was 6 weeks old, I had a lady on the train turn around and go, . . . `How old is your baby? Is he 6 weeks?’ And I said, `Yeah, he is 6 weeks. That was pretty funny, you guessed how old he was’. I thought that was pretty good. And she turned around and goes, `You’re only about 17 yourself. You’re a baby yourself’. And I said, `Yeah wellÐ’, `cause I don’t like being mean to nobody. And then she turns around and says, `You’ve ruined your life’. And I said, `Look lady, my life has only just begun now that I’ve got my baby’. And she turns around and goes, `You won’t be able to go to parties, you won’t be able to do your schooling. You’ve ruined your life’. And I said, `Well, I never really went to parties anyway, and my life has just started’. . . . She was about 50 and she was just so rude, I couldn’t believe it. . . . And I’m just trying not to take it to heart, but she didn’t have any right to say that; I mean a stranger! If it was somebody else that wanted to say something, and they weren’t saying it to hurt my feelings and just wanted to talk to me, that wouldn’t bother me; but she really wanted to have a go. . . . Everybody was listening, so I was also embarrassed as well, but I just got off the train and kept walking, and then thinking all the things that I should have said. . . . I get people looking and staring at me all the time, but what can you do? . . . I just smile and keep on walking. I’m not going to say anything or nothing. [Partner] gets a bit upset sometimes when we are in doctors’ surgeries; we get old people looking at us. Sometimes they’re . . . looking at the baby `cause everyone looks at babies, and [partner] thinks they’re staring at us `cause we’re young parents, so he’ll sit there and say, `What are you looking at? Rah, rah, rah’, and that embarrasses me. They are probably just looking at [baby] as well, because I love looking at other babies.

It is signi®cant that Mandy acknowledges that babies attract benign attention: she is not emplotting herself as a victim and her life as generally bleak, nor all encounters with other people as judgemental. However, her pride and pleasure in her child are overlaid by her knowledge of the adverse representation of teenage mothers in the canonical narrative. Mandy went on to say that she had even been judged and found wanting by older mothers in one of the two support groups in which she had participated (an experience reported by several other participants). Mandy: I rather go to the Young Mums’ group, because I can talk more there, ’cause at the other group there is 40-year-old mums. . . . But sometimes I think I’m more smarter with my baby than they are, ’cause they do everything, everything the `right’ way. I started feeding [solids to my baby] when he was three and a half months. I told one of the ladies there, and it was the end of the world. She said, Ì would never do that to my baby’. . . . I just sit in the group and I don’t talk, but when I’m [in the Young Mums’ group] they can’t stop me from talking . . . because I know that nobody judges you there. . . . I get a bit bored with the things they do because I’ve been there for so long I’m just repeating things. But I just don’t want to leave there because I like being with other girls going through the same thing of being judged by other people and stuff like that. See, when you have a baby when you’re 28, whenever they have babies, they just don’t get judged, so they don’t know what it feels like. They . . . don’t get looked on as being too young, and too young to be able to look after a baby. But I know I’m doing a good job with [my baby].

It is a sign of the strength of the canonical narrative of teenage mothers as `too young, and too young to be able to look after a baby’ that it is perceived even within a group designed to support mothers (of any age). Other anecdotes of confrontations like Mandy’s illustrate the complex ways in which the young women were understanding and emplotting their

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experiences. For example, Debbie told of strangers who `said something about my age’, but she immediately balanced their rudeness with a more detailed account of being praised by a stranger for dealing so well with a young baby: `She said, `Ì couldn’t cope at your age’’ ’. Debbie’s pride in her skill as a mother is emphasized in preference to condemnation because of her youth. Similarly, Olivia, who gave birth at 19, recounts tales of harsh treatment during her pregnancy, but does so in a manner which stresses her skill with a witty response and her acceptance of responsibility for her own actions: Olivia: Because I look younger than what I am, everyone just automatically thinks, Òh God here we go, another 14-year-old pregnant’. . . . I also had severe acne when I was pregnant, and being at work and that, and because I couldn’t wear make-up and I had to wear my hair full off my face the whole time, . . . people would come along and point at me and laugh and say, `There is that girl I was telling you about’. . . . My friends at work were really good about it, and they didn’t judge me by it or think I was dirty or anything like that. . . . I just felt very insecure about how I looked. . . . But that cleared up later in the pregnancy. . . . Everyone just sort of judges you because you are young. Yeah, Ànother one who just can’t keep off her back’, basically. . . . Some of the comments that people come out with! But then you’ve got to have a bit of fun with it too. At work, the amount of people who would say, `How did it happen?’ I would just say, `Believe it or not, I just sat in the wrong chair’. . . . [Q: So what about now being a mum?] Oh, you still get a few dirty looks and that. I don’t let it worry me any more, ’cause I think, I did the deed, I got pregnant, I kept the baby, here we are today. Like it, love it, or lump it.

Olivia has emplotted herself as coping, responsible, and someone who can de¯ect derogatory comments or impertinent questions with wit. She represents herself as more vulnerable to problems with her appearance than to condemnation from others. In a few cases, the canonical narrative of the irresponsible teenage mother had been experienced as discrimination, particularly in ®nding accommodation. These accounts came from young women living in poverty with little or no family support, who were known pejoratively as unmarried young mothers: Danielle: The thing I found the hardest the most was trying to get rental. . . . Like I applied to probably 15 places. The 16th place I got this. . . . Because I said that I got maintenance. . . . I did lie, tell a white lie to the estate agent, but I had to in the end to try and get in to a place. . . . But it wasn’t the money, it was just the fact that I was a single mum getting the pension with a baby.

Even those young mothers who acknowledged only judgemental `looks’ or no condemnation at all were aware of the canonical narrative of teenage motherhood. Fiona, for example, said that èlderly women . . . looked down on’ her when she was pregnant, and `you can sort of tell what they are thinking by the look they give’. Belinda’s assessment was that `there is a lot of stereotyping’. Helen reported that her fellow students made derogatory comments about teenage mothers without knowing that she was one, and said she had `heard some horror stories’ of negative attitudes even though her personal experience of it was limited. We suggest that the different emphases given to the canonical narrative by the young women in this study re¯ect not only differences in their personal experience but also the differential weight given to various possible interpretations of those experiences, depending on what else was happening in their lives at the time. These interpretations are mitigated by alternative


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emplotments, sometimes developed within their families, through which autobiographical narratives are reinterpreted in opposition to the canonical narrative. To illustrate these points, we will look ®rst at the family and peer narratives of teenage motherhood presented by these young women, and then discuss the autobiographical narratives told by the women themselves. An alternative narrative: teenage motherhood as the norm Sarah: [Mum]’s 38. She had me when she was 19. Her mum had her when she was 17, and her mum had her when she was 19. . . . I’ve got a friend who’s 16 with two kids. . . . She was 14 when she had her ®rst.

Many of the women in this study reported a history of teenage motherhood in their families; some said that it was common among their peers. We are not, in this paper, concerned with whether this might encourage the young women to continue a family tradition (Trussell 1988, Furstenberg et al. 1990). It was clear that the teenagers themselves did not interpret family history as the sole or even central determinant of their actions. We suggest that these well-developed narratives of mothers, grandmothers, and friends who became mothers as teenagers encourage benign emplotment for the autobiographical narratives of the young women once pregnancy has occurred. The family canon offers to the young women an alternative to the plot of disgrace and doom provided by the dominant narrative. One interesting feature of this alternative narrative is the different interpretation of what constitutes a young mother. Julie, for example, has a 14month-old baby: `When I was pregnant I used to get everyone staring at me. . . . Like, even though I’m 18 in June, I still look really young’. For Julie and others who accept that about 16±18 is a good age for motherhood, the challenge to the dominant narrative begins with the appropriate age for becoming a mother. Abby said her mother was 19 when she had her ®rst child. The interviewer asked, `Do you classify that as young?’ Abby replied, `No. . . . In them days it was probably old’. Asked about her parents’ ages, Emma said, 3 `They’re average. . . . Mum was 18 when she had me’. Their own experience of teenage parenthood does not necessarily mean that mothers will encourage their daughters to become young mothers. When Grace told her mother of her pregnancy, Grace reported: Mum . . . goes, `You’re too young’. SoÐand I said to her, `Mum, you were 17 when you fell pregnant with . . . my older brother’, and then she goes, `So? That was back then’, and I said, `Yeah, Mum, but it’s the 90s’. And I said, Èverything’s changed’.

Sarah, quoted at the head of this section, went on to say, `[My family] just want it to stop. Just want someone to break the pattern. [They] just don’t think my age is the age to have kids’. There is, therefore, a variety of possible interpretations presented to these young women. Many factorsÐbiological, personal, socialÐwill in¯uence the emplotment of each woman’s autobiographical narrative. The women who participated in our study hinted at complex, individual explanations of their own experiences in the accounts they gave of motherhood. We expect that these will change and develop over time. Nevertheless, every one of the

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women, to some degree, justi®ed her role as a young mother in a way that challenged the dominant narrative. The autobiographical narrative of teenage motherhood: justification Jessica: It’s not what people think. It’s how you feel yourself.

The autobiographical narratives constructed by the young mothers in this study unite con®dence in themselves as mothers, defence of their right to be mothers, and resentment at the need for justi®cation. In these they echo other women who deviate from the canonical narrative of womanhood, such as infertile women, who resent having to justify their desire to be mothers (Kirkman 1997); single mothers (Frith 1993); and women who are childless by choice, who sometimes feel compelled to defend their decision (Marshall 1993). The canonical narrative of womanhood represents the ideal life course for a woman as predicated upon her becoming a mother (preferably in a marriage), naturally, and at the appropriate (adult) time. The canonical narrative for women is a guide for action as well as a standard for judging the actions of others, but it certainly does not determine either an individual life course or the interpretation of a life. These young women showed themselves to be fully capable of defending their own lives from generalized condemnation: Emma: I was 17 when I was pregnant. And . . . a lot of people look at me as if to say, `You’re young’. Or look at you really funny, orÐI don’t know, they whisper to each other or something. Just little things like that. But I mean, if that’s their attitudeÐI mean, they don’t know me or what I’m like, sort of thing, so they really can’t judge me.

Emma refuses to be anonymously included with all women who share one feature of her life: teenage motherhood. In doing so, Emma exempli®es individuals who know that their lives are more complex than any stereotype or canonical narrative allow. The women’s narratives often included a detailed account of labour and birth. They emplotted themselves as competentÐeven remarkableÐprotagonists throughout this ordeal, as though their claim to be strong women and good mothers could begin with a triumphant labour. Grace, for example, told of her birth experience as `the only teenager in the hospital’. She was proud of not `screaming and yelling’, and said that people greeted her with smiles because her `cool, calm and collected’ demeanour during labour was known throughout the hospital. Lauren gave a long and detailed account of late pregnancy and birth which included pride in her physical ®tness, the awful pain of birth, her triumph at surviving the pain, and her excitement at being a mother. She also made it clear that her knowledge of the progress of labour was superior to that of the medical staff. Rachel was con®dent that she had made the right choice in having analgesics during labour, and was scathing of men who insist that their partners should have a `natural’ birth. Similarly, Belinda assessed her decision not to have her baby in her room for the ®rst three nights as wise, because she Pride in labour


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slept well while `the other mothers that had their baby with them from the ®rst minute . . . were walking around tired and distressed’. There were some things that Belinda had not found to be satisfactory about the management of her labour, but she conveyed no sense that it was beyond her control: Ì just know what I’ll do better next time’. All of these young mothers were actively incorporating their motherhood into a `consoling plot’ through which the bene®ts of having children and of being a young mother could be explained. Frank Kermode (1967) wrote that a `consoling plot’ is not necessarily one with a happy ending, but one that allows the interpretation of the vicissitudes of life in a way that makes them bearable. To speak of a consoling plot is not to be patronising, nor to imply that those who accept or create them are deluded, nor that they are using the defence of denial. It may be the most sensible, if not the only, way to live a satisfactory life under the circumstances: some may describe it as èmphasizing the positive’. The consoling plot for these young mothers included the explanations that life was enriched, not restricted, by motherhood; that young mothers will be free in the future when others are tied to children; and that the child is a source of pride and pleasure to the extended family as well as a means of bringing the family closer together. We concur with Phoenix (1991) who found little evidence that the young mothers in her study would have led happier lives had their motherhood been deferred. Emma heard the negative interpretation placed on her experience by others, but chose to describe it differently: Bene®ts of young motherhood: the `consoling plot’

Emma: There were a lot of people . . . who [said], `She is a little bit young, she will regret it’, type thing; `You won’t be able to do this and you won’t be able to do that’. But I mean, fair enough, there is all that to it, but then you look at what you’ve got, sort of thing, [compared] to what they’re doing, sort of thing. And it was like, I can still do that, but I just can’t do it as often.

Lauren had a similar response: Lauren: Someone said to me, Ì can’t believe that you’ve ruined your life’. I don’t believe that I’ve ruined my life. I’ve added to it, if anything. I mean, I miss out on a lot, but also when I’m older I’m going to be able to do a lot more than they will be. So it kind of pans out in the long run. It works itself out. I want to travel; if I can’t do it when I’m younger, I’ll just do it when I’m older. I will have more money at that stage. I’ll be able to do more. No restrictions or anything; it will be great.

Others supported the notion that they will be free in the future when older women are tied down by motherhood. Most also claimed that their youth gave them an advantage when looking after children. Danielle encapsulated their views: Danielle: There’s a lot of young mums out these days. I think it’s actually better to be a young mum because you’ve got . . . more energy and, you know, excitement in you to play with your baby and to bring them up, you know, and . . . when you turn 30, your child’s in, practically, you know, through its primary school years and, you know, you get to do the things you want to do. So it’s not like you’re just ruining your life to have a baby because 5 or 6 years later it’s like your baby’s in school and you’ve still got a life. You can go and make a career for yourself.

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Belinda stated a familiar delight of motherhood: Belinda: It is a full time job and you don’t get a break from it for quite some time, but that doesn’t bother me. . . . I think the best thing is that smile that you get [from your child] when everything is going OK.

A further bene®t of having children, one which was highly signi®cant to some of these women, was the in¯uence of their child in drawing the family closer together, or the child as a source of pride and pleasure to the extended family. Belinda said of her mother and grandmother, `They boast to all their friends about this little one’. Sarah said that, since her pregnancy and birth, she and her mother are à lot closer, which is good’. A recurring theme in the interviews was of families unhappy with a teenage pregnancy becoming warm and loving when the grandchild was born. Belinda went on to say that her baby’s Name Day had been an occasion to bring the family together, and that, after a few deaths and losses in the family, the baby was a symbol of hope. She emplotted her life to include a baby who was destined to be born, even though it was unplanned, and whose birth had transformed her partner into a responsible young man. As though to counter any scepticism, Belinda reported that others had commented on the transformation. Belinda: Having [daughter] has sort of opened up a whole new side to [partner] that I don’t think anybody has seen. Even his family comment on it; that, you know, we’ve done such a wonderful job of settling him down and just making him more of a nicer person to be around. But yeah, we still have our ®ghts, but I suppose they’re not as bad because she’s asleep or just the fact that it upsets her if we have an argument.

Emphasizing the positive did not deter these young mothers from acknowledging the disadvantages of having children so young and, in some cases, without the support of a partner. At times, these accounts echoed aspects of the canonical narrative. However, great care was taken with language to ensure that the disadvantages did not dominate the plot. Disadvantages of young motherhood are acknowledged

Robyn: Sometimes you feel like killing them. . . . If you’re a single young mum, you can’t go out when you want to go out, if you know what I mean, so that is mainly a disadvantage. . . . When your kids get too much out of control, you know the other person’s not there to step in and set it right. . . . You’ve got to be the mum and the dad, if you know what I mean. . . . Especially when they get sick of listening to you, they just totally ignore you, do what they want anyway. Helen: It is a massive step in your life . . . and you’re not taught that much. . . . You don’t realise how much it affects your emotions as well as all the other changes. . . . It’s not the best thing for your social life either.

Melanie expanded on this last point, describing the disadvantages as: `Not being able to do what you want, going out wherever you want. . . . Just things you would like to do. Before you had a child’. At ®rst, when Sarah was asked about disadvantages, she made the sweeping statement that, `You lose your life, practically’. When asked what she meant, she said that `your friends don’t invite you out any more, . . . because of the baby. They just think, ``Because she’s got a baby she can’t go out’’ ’. But she went on to say, `they don’t realize it’s not all that hard, it’s just grabbing the stuff and that’s it. . . . I always said I’m not going to let her change


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anything. . . . I’m not that restricted’. So the restriction is in the minds of her friends, not in limitations arising from her baby. Others echoed this view, including Fiona who went on to describe a further common disadvantage: `Probably that you don’t have a lot of money, than, say, an older couple that’s doing a career and working and things like that’. An associated issue was unemployment. Abby said that if you want to get a job but have no work experience, `You’ve got no hope’. However, Abby made it clear that she was assessing problems of young mothers in general; it was not a problem that applied to her. Belinda said that it was dif®cult having a child dependent on you, but that it became easier with time. Rather than the disadvantages of the demands of motherhood, the young women tended to emphasize how they dealt with these demands: Tania: Constant crying can get to you a bit. But I’ve learnt how to deal with that: I just switch off and let her cry. The early morning feeds, and it’s just, like, normal baby stuff. You’ve got to do it. I mean, if you’re willing to go ahead and have the baby, you’ve got to be prepared for all the stuff that’s going to come in the years after. That’s the way that I look at it. . . . It’s trial and error. If you do something wrong the ®rst time, maybe you will do it right with the second kid, or third, or whatever.

The way in which these young women emplot their motherhood is in stark contrast to the canonical narrative of teenage mothers. Without exception, they represented themselves as con®dent, goodÐor at least good enoughÐmothers. Mandy’s claim has already been quoted: Ì know I’m doing a good job with [my baby]’. Their devotion to their children is rewarded with love: Con®dence in themselves as good mothers

Mandy: When I leave [baby] I can’t breathe. . . . I’m just really worried to leave him. I don’t want to, ever. . . . [I wonder], is he crying? `Cause I’m the only person that settles him down; nobody else. It’s not that he’s an upset baby or nothing, but as soon as I leave, he doesn’t like it when I’m gone. . . . Maybe because I’m breast feeding, it makes us closer. I’m not sure. But he is very close to Mummy.

Such intimacy and special maternal skills are not acquired without effort. These women emplot themselves as learning quickly how to carry out a dif®cult job: Kelly: She used to cry a fair bit, when she was little. And I don’t know, I just couldn’t cope with it. Like, I didn’t like to hear her cry, so I was always up trying to put her on my stomach and stuff like that. But after probably about 2 weeks I was pretty used to being mum. . . . The lady at the hospital said, Ìt won’t take you long. As soon as you get the knack of things you’ll be right’. And I said, `Yeah, right’ [sarcasm]. But yeah, I did. Lauren: I ended up having [baby] on the Monday and they let me out [of hospital] on the Friday. So that was good. Then [baby]’s dad came on the Saturday and stayed till the Sunday to see him, and so I had that kind of happen. Mum was home on the Friday, I had that kind of happen. Then Monday everyone went. . . . So it was the ®rst time . . . I had been by myself, and I kind of panicked a little bit. Oh! He was crying, and I had to make a bottle and hold him and do this and do that, and it was very scary. . . . But you get used to it pretty quickly. You have to cope. It was probably good getting thrown in at the deep end, ’cause I had to cope, so I learned how to do it pretty quickly.

Although there are hints that these young mothers perceive other people as interpreting any mistakes as the inevitable outcome of their youth, they explain their circumstances differently. Anyone doing a job as dif®cult as

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motherhood is going to make mistakes; the skill lies in learning from those mistakes. Some young women described themselves as improving on the mothering job done by their own mothers: Debbie: [My mother]’s a single mother of ®ve. . . . She worked night shift for 8 years, and did college through the day. So she used to average 3 hours of sleep a day. But I want to do everything the opposite to her. I hated her when I was younger, . . . because she was never, ever there. . . . [Boyfriend] said to me, `Why don’t you go out and get a job?’. But I don’t want to do that. I didn’t have [my son] to stick him in a creÃche full time. . . . [I want to] just do all the motherly things. . . . When he gets home from school I want to be home, or not long after. . . . I don’t want him to never be allowed to bring friends home from school, or have nobody there to make him a snack, or have him and his brothers and sisters punching on and have nobody to stop them. Because we used to do that. And I just hated it.

One way of de®ning oneself as a good mother is in contrast with a bad or sel®sh mother: Fiona: A lot of it, I think, comes down to laziness, . . . ’cause I’ve got two [friends] and one’s with her boyfriend and both smoke, use disposables, and use all of Heinz food, where I don’t use disposables and I don’t use Heinz food and I don’t smoke, so I’m different to them in that way. . . . I think if I did smoke and I did use all them, I would cut back on something, ’cause something would have to go, to be able to give [my daughter] a bit more. Belinda: I can understand sometimes how people get really burnt out with young babies, and how, you know, some mothers really stress out. . . . But what I could never understand was, why do you hit a child that is screaming to stop it screaming? That one just never made any sense to me, because, as you understand, kids cry more when they get hit.

Belinda, in common with other young mothers in this group, acknowledged that motherhood is dif®cult. Furthermore, Sarah asserted that society did not appreciate mothers, who: are not classed as working; like, we’re always told we . . . sit at home all day watching `Days of Our Lives’. . . . We don’t do that at all. It’s a whole lot of hard work. It’s like a full-time job. We’re all made to go out and work and leave the kid with strangers and we feel guilty if we don’t. We can’t win.

Some professionals who deal with these young women may not share their interpretation of what makes a good mother; the difference may be classrelated. For example, Robyn was concerned not only to give her children their basic needs, but sweet treats as well: Robyn: My kids might not get the best name food, they might only just get the home brand food, but, you know, still it’s their food, they get their fruit, they get their veggies, they get their ice cream or ice blocks and their lollies and their biscuits, so, you know. Yeah, we get there.

Debbie has had direct con¯ict over her mothering style, with the woman who runs her Young Mums’ group: Debbie: Just the attitude she takes that everybody there can’t run a serious relationship. . . . [Partner] and I have been together for a year, just over a year. She’s always asking me when I’m going to have the next baby, and then when I say not for a long time, it’s, Òh, things are going badly, are they?’ It’s not that, it is just I’m not ready to have another one. . . . She tells me that [my son] is a brat, and that he’s hyperactive and I should get him tested for ADD and all this sort stuff. He’s just a typical 2-year-old little boy. With a lot of energy. . . . She will sit there and she will say to [my son], `Now [toddler], don’t stand on that. I think you should hop down, it’s not a good idea, you will break the toy. Now hop down please’. And she expects him to understand and he is 2! Now the


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only thing [toddler] understands is that if you’re yelling, then he is obviously doing something wrong. . . . And she expects them not to make a mess with their food or anything, and she just really is hopeless.

Even well-meaning professionals may be patronizing: Sarah: [In hospital], one of the midwives, she was trying to make everyone feel sorry for me because I was young and on my own. I just wanted to be treated like everybody else.

The young women themselves express tolerance for a range of parenting styles (although that tolerance may be tinged with judgement): Debbie: We [a school friend with a baby] speak to each other for about an hour every day. . . . But she is likeÐhow do you put itÐshe mothers them a lot different to what I do to [toddler]. But we don’t argue about it. We don’t say who is right and who is wrong, it’s just each to his own. We both look after our boys individually, like, some things she would do, I wouldn’t dream of doing.

Conclusions

Our interviews with young mothers demonstrated both their awareness of the canonical narrative, in which they are condemned, and their contrasting autobiographical narratives, in which they are represented as good mothers who have acquired mothering skills which they will continue to develop. Awareness of the canonical narrative of teenage motherhood was demonstrated by those who reported experiencing overt hostility and those who told of being discriminated against, as well as by those for whom direct experiences of judgement and condemnation were not part of their autobiographical narratives. In summary, the young women included the following among the positive aspects of mothering: life is enriched by motherhood; young mothers have more energy than older mothers; young mothers will be free in the future when others are tied to children; there are bene®ts in growing up with one’s children; and the child is a source of pride and pleasure to the extended family as well as a means of bringing the family closer together. Although the women refused to emphasise the disadvantages of teenage motherhood, they acknowledged dif®culties in: the demands of children on their mothers, no matter how old the mothers are; the restrictions on social life caused by both the child’s needs and the reluctance of friends to include the young mother and baby in their social life; and their limited incomes. Throughout their autobiographical accounts, a `consoling plot’ was evident. We may infer that these young women are undertaking the work described by narrative psychologists as re-authoring their lives (White 1995). Instead of accepting the interpretation of teenage motherhood represented by the canonical narrative, they are emplotting their lives to their own bene®t. Young women may be supported in this endeavour by a family canon of mothers, grandmothers, and friends who became mothers as teenagers. This paper is not intended as a recommendation of teenage motherhood. Our goal was to examine teenage motherhood as it is interpreted by young mothers. We will give the last word to one of them: Grace, who summarizes the pleasure described by these young mothers in their mothering and their

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relationships with their children. She also expresses their sense of pride, coupled with something like surprise and wonder at the experience of suddenlyÐbut successfullyÐgrowing up. Grace said that her best experiences involved watching her daughter grow up: Grace: Watching her go through, like, rolling to crawling and then to walking. Um, then sort of waking up in the morning thinking that I’ve got something to look forward to. . . . Even though I’ve got her, I’m bored sometimes, but other times I sit on the ¯oor playing with her for 2 hours and she likes that. . . . I enjoy being a mum. I didn’t really want to be at ®rst. . . . When I fell pregnant, I thought, `Nuh, I don’t think I can handle being a mother’. But then when I had her and that, and the ®rst time I held her, I thought, `That’s it; I can’t believe it! I’m a mum now’. I just burst into tears because I was happy. It was funny though; Mum had turned around and . . . ’cause I’m a young girl, she calls me her baby. She goes, `My baby’s just had a baby!’ . . . I said, `Just think, Mum, your daughter’s a mum now’.

Acknowledgements

The contributions of the young women and the convenors of the support groups for teenage mothers are gratefully acknowledged. Jodie Clarke was Research Assistant to the project. Lyn Harrison, Lynne Hillier, and Priscilla Pyett were awarded a Central Starter Grant from La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, for this research, which was conducted when the authors were research fellows at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society, La Trobe University. We thank Ann Phoenix for her thoughtful reading of a draft of this paper and her helpful comments. An earlier version of part of this paper, entitled Teenage Mothers: Ìt’s not what people think; it’s how you feel yourself’, was presented at the conference `Young Women 2000ÐHealth & all that stuff’, Royal Women’s Hospital, Victoria, Australia, in March 2000.

Notes 1. For details of these aspects of narrative theory and research, see the body of work on the illness narratives, e.g. Farmer and Good 1991, Garro 1994, Good 1994. 2. The second, third, and fourth themes are discussed in papers now being prepared. 3. We recognize that the appropriate age for motherhood represented in the canonical narrative is subject to change, and that it is also related to social class (see Phoenix 1991: 48±51).

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ReÂ sumeÂ

La grossesse chez les adolescentes est classiquement preÂsenteÂe comme un probleÁme Áa reÂgler, si ce n’est pas comme une eÂpideÂmie neÂcessitant une intervention urgente. Cet article rend compte d’une eÂtude australienne qui a examineÂ le phe ÂnomeÁne de la materniteÂ chez les adolescentes, du point de vue des jeunes femmes elles-meÃmes. Le cadre theÂorique du reÂcit a eÂteÂ adopteÂ a®n de comprendre aussi bien la facËon avec laquelle les jeunes meÁres donnent du sens Áa leurs propres vies, que celle avec laquelle elles interpreÁtent le reÂcit canonique de la materniteÂ adolescente. Des entretiens avec 20 jeunes meÁres ont montreÂ leur conscience du reÂcit canonique qui les juge et les condamne, et ont deÂcrit leurs reÂcits autobiographiques contradictoires, dans lesquels elles sont repreÂsenteÂes comme de bonnes meÁres, capables d’acqueÂrir les compeÂtences maternelles. Quoique les femmes aient refuseÂ de souligner les inconveÂnients de la materniteÂ adolescente, elles en reconnaissent les dif®culteÂs. A travers leurs compte-rendus autobiographiques, il y avait un « sceÂnario consolateur » eÂvident. Des reÂcits familiaux de materniteÂ adolescente pourraient contribuer Áa soutenir les jeunes femmes, dans leur tentative de plani®cation de leurs propres vies. Resumen

El embarazo entre adolescentes es considerado generalmente un problema que debe solucionarse o una epidemia que necesita de una urgente intervencioÂn. En este documento, se expone un estudio australiano en el que se analiza el fenoÂmeno de la maternidad adolescente desde la perspectiva de las mismas joÂvenes. Se adoptoÂ el marco teoÂrico de las narrativas para intentar comprender, por una parte, co Âmo las joÂvenes madres encaminaban sus propias vidas y, por otra, coÂmo interpretaban los relatos cano Ânicos de la maternidad adolescente. En las entrevistas llevadas a cabo a 20 joÂvenes madres quedoÂ demostrado que conocen bien los relatos cano Ânicos, en los que se las juzga y condena y que contrastan con sus relatos autobiograÂ®cos. Ellas se consideraban bu Â enas madres capaces de aprender las tareas de la maternidad. Aunque negarron las desventajas de la maternidad adolescente, reconocõÂan las di®cultades implicadas. En todos los relatos autobiograÂ®cos, era evidente una explicacioÂn de consuelo. A veces los relatos familiares sobre la maternidad adolescente pueden ayudan a las joÂvenes madres a interpretar positivamente sus vidas para su propio bene®cio.