The Incomplete Mother as Non-mother: A Study of Secondary Infertility in Helen Davies’ More Love to Give
摘要
Secondary infertility is an incredibly common but largely undiscussed condition. It is every bit as difficult to traverse (physically, psychologically and emotionally) as primary infertility and gives rise to a similar sense of non-motherhood or being outside of motherhood. However, women suffering from secondary infertility report an overwhelming lack of empathy and understanding from society due to the fact that they already have a child/children. This, in turn, leads to feelings of guilt and shame on the part of these women who want another child but are failing to conceive, given that they are considered to have already succeeded in accessing motherhood. This chapter focuses on British writer Helen Davies’ little-known personal narrative of secondary infertility entitled More Love to Give (published in 2017). The chapter examines the consequences of secondary infertility for maternal subjectivity (most notably in terms of perceived failure) and explores the fraught experience of liminality that accompanies secondary infertility, in that one is simultaneously mother and non-mother. Finally, it argues that secondary infertility forces us to both nuance and expand our understanding of non-motherhood by revealing the latter to be a complex, multi-faceted and sometimes contradictory experience.