Academics and activists discuss everything from babies to blogging

The largest conference ever organized on the subject of motherhood was convened in Toronto, Canada in late October 2006, with a name that reflects the size and scope of the project: �The Motherlode: A Complete Celebration of Motherhood.�

The program included a workshop offered by Patrice DiQuinzio, PhD, Assoc. Prof. of Philosophy and Director or Women�s Studies at Muhlenberg College, PA who is a Trustee of the Board of the National Association of Mothers� Centers (NAMC), and Linda Lisi Juergens, NAMC�s Executive Director. The topic of their presentation was Mothers� Centers: Effects of Participation on Mothers and Families based on surveys and interviews with Mothers� Center participants.

It was the 10th anniversary of the first international conference on motherhood organized in 1997 by professors Andrea O�Reilly and Nancy Mandell of York University�s Centre for Feminist Research. The response to that first conference led to the establishment of the Association for Research on
Mothering (ARM), which now has more than 600 members in two dozen countries.

�The NAMC shared its 32 year history of identifying the unmet needs of mothers and helping them address those needs� says Lisi Juergens. �The interdisciplinary focus of this conference, with scholars from fields as varied as women�s studies, business and the visual arts, made it a unique opportunity to look at the mother�s experience from many angles. In addition, topics that require additional research were identified.�

Academics, social workers, activists, midwives, policymakers and others took part in the conference, discussing experiences of motherhood in countries
as varied as China, Uganda, India, France and Australia. A few of the many
topics at the conference were: post-partum depression, new reproductive
technologies, fetal alcohol disorder, mothering and globalization, and adoption.

The NAMC is a member organization of ARM, which was founded in 1998. ARM has since established both a journal and, more recently, the first feminist scholarly press on motherhood.