The perception of intensive motherhood: Contemporary parenting culture from the perspectives of mothers

The changes at the cultural dimension caused by the economic transformations and technological developments on a global scale and the life experiences caused by these changes are no longer foreign to our country. Among these changes, the increase in the status of professions and the importance attributed to the professional knowledge has significant effects on motherhood as a social phenomenon such as the increased perception of risk and danger, the transformation of maternal identity to a design that is created and maintained with reflexivity, and the spread of surveillance culture. These effects, which emerged as a result of the changes in the socialization of professional knowledge, have led to the transformation of motherhood into a child-centered, risk-conscious profession containing high material and moral responsibilities, that is intensive motherhood. This study aims to reveal the effects of this transformation on women's mothering experience, their perspectives on child and their perceptions of motherhood. In line with this purpose, which includes understanding the relationship between the contemporary ideal of mother and today's economic, social and cultural structures and how the mothering experience is organized within the framework of this relationship, in-depth interviews were conducted with educated mothers with middle and upper-middle socio-economic status using a phenomenological research design. The data collected from these interviews were analyzed with categorical content analysis and evaluated within the framework of today's social and cultural developments, and the changes in the socialization of professional knowledge. It can be said that today mothering is an experience consisting of critical stages for women. Through these stages professional guidance, which is found trust worthy in the face of potential and / or concrete risks, is important in terms of both protecting the child and also creating and maintaining the maternal identity. For this reason, motherhood has become a rational responsibility that is both monitored by professionals and self-monitored by the mother with reference to the professional knowledge. Keywords: Intensive Motherhood, Professional Guidance, Risk Consiousness, Reflexive Identity, Surveillance Society