Phenomenology of Pregnancy – How Pregnancy Ambiguates and Reaffirms a Mother’s Identity

This paper examines several phenomenological factors that ambiguate and reaffirm a mother’s identity during pregnancy. Specifically, this paper focuses on cis-gendered heterosexual relationships where the carrier of the fetus is female and referred to a mother throughout. Though not all women can become pregnant, not every person with a uterus identifies as female, and not every mother carries her fetus, for concision, this paper centralizes only on a mother who carries her genetic fetus. I use the terms “mother” and “carrier” interchangeably. This paper tackles the following questions: How does pregnancy ambiguate or reaffirm a mother’s self-identity following the introduction of her fetus’ identity? What factors cause those changes? This paper seeks to respond to these questions by analyzing literature on the pregnancy experience and conversations with women who had unique ones.

The phenomenology of pregnancy is a topic far understudied, especially in philosophy, given its immense significance in human life and experience. Without pregnancy and its approximate 40 weeks full of all possibilities, life would not exist (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2020). Since every mother experiences her pregnancy uniquely, it is even more crucial to undertake phenomenological studies of pregnancy experiences, which this paper aims to achieve.

Fortunately, increasing studies of the phenomenology of pregnancy have emerged in recent years in cognitive and behavioral science (Dafei et al., 2021). A few philosophers have evaluated pregnancy despite a dearth of texts on the subject. The philosopher Iris Marion Young (1984) highlights how pregnancy displaces a mother’s self and objectifies her. The medical historian Barbara Duden (1993) touches on the idea of “the public fetus,” where there is a prevalent exposure of what is supposed to be female privacy and the negative consequences that may arise from publicizing such a private matter. Jonna Bornemark and Nicholas Smith (2016) compile additional literature on many topics regarding the phenomenology of pregnancy through their anthology. Though they touch on intersubjectivity between the mother and the fetus, they do not connect this idea with the concept of prenatal attachment, which this paper examines. Moral philosopher Jeff McMahan (2002) provides an in-depth account of the many elements involved in the discussion of abortion, especially regarding the fetus’ identity and status of personhood. Contemporary philosophy of pregnancy often focuses on abortion, ethics associated with abortions, and, most controversially, the fetus’ personhood. The philosopher Judith Thomson (1971) famously utilizes the thought experiment with an unconscious violinist that portrays different scenarios related to abortion and the ethics of killing.^[1] While these topics are important, they do not cover all that pregnancy is. This paper will evaluate pregnancy through the lens of identities and relationships, especially the mother’s experience. Moreover, while philosophy has not extensively delved into the phenomenological changes that occur in a mother during pregnancy, behavioral and cognitive science has studied this phenomenon through prenatal attachments. For example, Tommaso Trombetta et al. (2021) and Anna R. Brandon et al. (2011) legitimize prenatal attachments between mothers and their fetuses and provide data on their impacts on the mother’s experience and fetal development.

Three prominent themes emerged from the literature: (a) the fetus’ identity during pregnancy, (b) the mother’s identity and its changes in relation to external and internal factors, and (c) the relationship between the mother and her fetus.

Along with the literature and research mentioned above, this paper serves as a stepping stone to further expand on the philosophy of pregnancy in our current society. Exemplified by the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not grant a right to abortion, the politics of pregnancy are increasingly controversial; abortion rights and the duty of care are still in question (Center for Reproductive Rights, 2023). Now more than ever, discussing pregnancy and its related topics is paramount. These are more reasons to prioritize conversations around such subjects.

The first section of this paper discusses how the fetus’ identity^[2] is difficult to distinguish from the mother’s even if one takes a fetus to morally have a separate identity. The second section considers three internal phenomenological factors that ambiguate the mother’s identity throughout pregnancy. The third section introduces the idea of “the public fetus” as an external factor that further ambiguates the mother’s identity. The fourth section looks toward two passive factors that reaffirm the mother’s identity. In the final section, the paper suggests a more active and personal factor that reaffirms the mother’s identity: a mother’s prenatal attachment to her fetus.

I. The Fetus’ Identity and the Mother’s Identity

Many politically controversial stances (Zernike, 2022) argue the fetus is an individual with its own identity, and thus abortion is immoral. While the questions of the morality of abortion are interesting, there is much beyond abortion in pregnancy, such as the intersection between the mother’s and the fetus’ respective identities (Young, 1984). The relationship between these two identities is important to the phenomenological study of pregnancy. One perspective views the distinguishing of the fetus’ identity obscurely (McMahan, 2002). During pregnancy, the fetus’ existence relies entirely on the mother (Isaacs, 2003).^[3] The only conspicuous aspect that sets the fetus apart from her is its own body. Besides its gradual development of physical traits, there is no depth in the fetus’ identity in terms of personality that can distinguish it as a unique agent (Smith, 2016, as cited in Phenomenology of Pregnancy, 2016). It remains to be understood at this time whether fetuses do have personalities. Thus, even though a fetus may have its own identity, one cannot argue against the fact that it remains dependent on the mother for nutrients, oxygen, and a safe environment for development throughout pregnancy. Considering these circumstances, the fetus cannot be separated from the mother; its existence and its identity are closely associated with hers. This dependence means the fetus and the mother’s distinct identities may become obscure. It becomes challenging to draw a clear line between when the fetus’ identity begins and ends. If this is the case for the fetus, one may also wonder whether it likewise affects the mother. Specifically, the dependent relationship the fetus has with her may ambiguate the mother’s self-identity.

II. Three Factors that Ambiguate the Mother’s Identity

A few philosophers have reflected on the interrelation between the fetus’ and the mother’s identities and how it influences the mother. This section focuses on three compelling factors that ambiguate the preciseness of the mother’s identity: (a) the lack of spatial difference between the mother and her fetus, (b) the mother’s ability to directly impact her fetus, and (c) the mother’s ability to feel her fetus’ movements and witness its development (Young, 1984).

Unlike usual encounters with other beings, pregnancy involves two or more beings that are not spatially or visually distinct. The philosopher Sara Heinämaa summarizes this idea and shows that, in pregnancy, “there is no spatial difference between the two subjects, since the foetus is inside her” (Heinämaa, 2007, as cited in Bornemark & Smith, 2016). She writes:

If we take into consideration the fact that a woman is able to apprehend another living being in her own body, and to house or host this other, then we have to question the presupposition that self and other are necessarily separated by a spatial distance. The subject that feels a sensing and moving other inside her own living body is different from the subject that sees the other at a distance over there (Heinämaa, 2007, as cited in Bornemark & Smith, 2016).

The fact that the fetus, seen as an “other” (Heinämaa, 2007, as cited in Bornemark & Smith, 2016), exists within the mother when she is pregnant makes the phenomenon of pregnancy significantly different. It is undoubtedly a unique experience to encounter another being in oneself, making identifying distinct identities challenging. When there are two supposed identities in a singular body, straying from the usual nature of having one identity correlate with only one bodily frame, the precision of the identities becomes obscure. The lack of spatial difference is something the general public is unfamiliar with. The mother must learn to cope with this unfamiliarity; she must preserve herself while caring for the fetus inside of her.

The second and third factors, which result from the lack of spatial difference, are the mother’s abilities to (b) directly impact the fetus and (c) feel the fetus’ movements and development.

First, a mother’s health and lifestyle choices impact her fetus. The mother’s physical condition, including any diseases she carries, weight gain, body mass index, and behaviors, such as physical activity or smoking habits, usually affects fetal growth and pregnancy outcomes (Brett et al., 2014). Often, high stress levels correlate to miscarriages, prematurity, where a baby is born alive before 37 weeks of pregnancy, or low birth weight in infants (Divecha, 2018). The necessity of a healthy mother’s diet is even more evident, for the nutrients she intakes transport to the fetus, which the fetus relies on for bodily development. Many of a mother’s actions could affect fetal development, further underscoring the uniqueness of pregnancy as other relationships between two agents do not hold this type of closely related impact. Many of the mother’s decisions must be paired with consideration of her fetus, who would not exist without her. Again, the obscurity between the mother’s and fetus’ identities arises.

Some women feel that, especially when it becomes physically evident that they are pregnant, people begin to care for them as “pregnant women” instead of women alone. Questions and comments such as “Has the baby eaten yet?” instead of “Have you eaten yet?” or “Even if you do not eat, your baby needs to eat” feel as though the mother’s identity is disregarded for the sake of the fetus (Personal communication, December 29, 2022). As the fetus remains in the mother’s womb for the entirety of pregnancy, the way the mother treats herself is essentially how she treats her fetus. In moments like these, where the lack of spatial difference necessitates the mother to simultaneously care for herself and to care for her fetus, the dichotomy of their identities inevitably breaks down.

The third factor that ambiguates the mother’s self-identity is when she feels her fetus’ movements inside of her (Young, 1984). When the fetus has not executed movements that evoke sensation during the early stages of pregnancy, the mother’s perception of the fetus may not be well established yet. Some women think it is only when they feel their fetus’ movements that their perception of the fetus’ identity strengthens (Personal communication, December 29, 2022). However, those same movements may ambiguate her identity. Though it is the fetus’ movements, the fact that they remain in the mother’s body indicates they are also the mother’s, for she experiences those sensations. Iris Marion Young depicts this phenomenon succinctly:

The first movements of the foetus produce this sense of the splitting subject; the foetus’ movements are wholly mine, completely within me, conditioning my experience and space. Only I have access to these movements from their origin, as it were. For months only I can witness this life within me, and it is only under my direction of where to put their hands that others can feel these movements… Adrienne Rich reports this sense of the movements within as mine, even though they are another’s. ‘In early pregnancy, the stirring of the foetus felt like ghostly tremors of my own body, later like the movements of a being imprisoned within me; but both sensations were my sensations, contributing to my own sense of physical and psychic space’ (Rich, 1976, as cited in Young, 1984).

The fetus’ movements and development gradually emphasize the challenge to distinguish the fetus’ identity from the mother’s. While the mother has to balance both identities in the same structure, she is suggested as “de-centered, split, or doubled in several ways” (Young, 1984). This phenomenon is unlike any other experience. The mother experiences a sort of “radical ordeal of the splitting of the subject: redoubling up of the body, separation and coexistence of the self and an other’” (Kristeva, 1981, as cited in Young, 1984). The mother’s once distinct identity is coupled with another’s, inevitably changing during her pregnancy experience.

The lack of spatial difference, the necessity to care for herself for her fetus, and the ownership of her sensations caused by the fetus are three factors that ambiguate the mother’s identity. As stated, literature corroborates with the terms “de-centered” and “split” (Young, 1984); the mother’s self-subjectivity falters under the introduction of and coexistence with the fetus’ identity. Her precise identity becomes ambiguous.

III. “The Public Fetus” as a Factor that Further Ambiguates the Mother’s Identity

Up to this point, this paper has evaluated only internal factors related to the mother alone that cause changes to her identity. In this section, this analysis acknowledges an external factor that can also ambiguate the mother’s identity. This factor is “the public fetus” (Duden, 1993). The concept of “the public fetus”, in which increasing amounts of fetal images and statuses are shown to the public, may outwardly seem to be a positive progression of media expansion for important feminist issues. However, as the private nature of pregnancy is shown to the public, mothers may feel their personal experiences exposed and subsequent societal standards for pregnancy oppressive. For example, “Feminist research shows that the public proliferation of fetuses has strengthened the demands for administrative control of pregnant women and the extension of legal protection for the fetus against its mother” (Duden, 1993). As fetal status and images are publicized, the question of who has responsibility for the fetus arises. Since the fetus directly belongs to its genetic mother and remains in only her womb during pregnancy, it should likewise only be under her authority. However, “the public fetus” suggests otherwise, as exemplified by legal actions that may control the fetus’ status. Another example ties back to the idea in the previous section that the public disregards the mother’s identity when her pregnancy is publicized, namely the fact that she experiences less privacy in public. This phenomenon is exemplified through many people, including strangers, feeling a pregnant woman’s stomach, crossing her physical boundaries although they would respect a non-pregnant woman’s space. In many cases, it is normal for the public to excessively focus on the changes in a pregnant woman’s body, which would be inappropriate for any other woman. Duden reveals the negative impacts of such phenomena:

Increasingly, the public image of the fetus shapes the emotional and the bodily perception of the pregnant woman. In response, a number of women are now asking themselves how they can protect their own experience of pregnancy from the intrusion of these public fetuses (Duden, 1993).

The introduction of the fetus changes the mother’s attitude on many levels. Not only does the development of the fetus split her subjectivity, as aforementioned, subsequent publicizing of the fetus creates insecurity of her private matters’ protection. One example includes the mother’s behavioral change when undergoing medical procedures during pregnancy. When revealing her private matters to predominantly male medical professionals, she experiences what Young terms “alienation,” the female existence and objectification in a patriarchal society (Young, 1984). Young argues:

A woman’s experience in pregnancy and birthing is often alienated because her condition tends to be defined as a disorder, because medical instruments objectify internal process in such a way that they devalue a woman’s experience of those processes, and because the social relations and instrumentation of the medical setting reduce her control over her experience from her (Young, 1984).

Pregnancy was historically viewed as a disorder since it required medical aid, a procedure usually only adopted when something strays from a usual, healthy state. Furthermore, throughout most of history, male bias, especially the idea that “noticeable change in their bodily state usually [signals] a disruption or dysfunction” (Young, 1984), accompanied the required treatment and prenatal care for pregnant women (Young, 1984). Pregnant women show “noticeable change in their bodily state” (Young, 1984) as the mother undergoes many physical and mental changes at once and, thus, faces judgment that they are “disrupted” or “dysfunctional” (Young, 1984). Moreover, when the mother’s pregnancy is publicized to medical professionals, she faces external procedures to treat her internal matters. Under such an environment where she must resort to support that she cannot provide herself, she could feel invalidated because she is incapable of experiencing a “healthy state” (Young, 1984) alone. Take the medical treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), for example, where pregnant women face extreme intractable nausea and vomiting, resulting in dehydration and malnutrition. This condition requires medical aid, such as intravenous fluids and medication, but due to the historical stigma around HG, many women are denied such aid (Dean, 2016). Furthermore, “Though 75 to 88 percent of pregnant women experience some nausea in the early months, some obstetrical textbooks refer to this physiological process as a neurosis that ‘may indicate resentment, ambivalence, and inadequacy in women ill-prepared for motherhood’” (Corea, 1977, as cited in Young, 1984).

A pregnant woman’s subjective, private experience is denied when she is objectified as a mere patient with “neurosis” (Corea, 1977, as cited in Young, 1984) under such circumstances. Such public objectification raises doubt in the mother’s perception of her own abilities, worth, and similarly her self-identity, further ambiguating the mother’s once stable identity and weakening her self-certainty and autonomy. However, bearing this section and the previous one in mind, one should also acknowledge the factors that may reaffirm a mother’s identity and even enhance her perception of herself. I will delve into these factors in the next two sections.

IV. Two Factors that Reaffirm the Mother’s Identity

The first conspicuous factor is that the woman takes on an additional identity when she becomes a mother. This new layer of identity adds to her perception of herself before pregnancy, in which she may now identify with something she could not do before. The mother has to adopt the new role of being a mother and uphold extra responsibilities while carrying her fetus. Essentially, pregnancy broadens her experience as a woman and allows her to feel certain sentiments only a pregnant woman can experience. The mother is able to feel a first-hand sense of ownership over her own child and witness her potential for creating a new life. The mother’s identity inevitably evolves into something more intricate. Pregnancy ultimately changes her status as she transitions into motherhood; the label of a “mother” carries along an additional set of duties and standards in a social setting, reaffirming her changed identity through social interactions in a new reality.

A second factor that reaffirms the mother’s identity is her ability to create new life in her own body. Since the development of the fetus and its subsequent birth occur entirely due to the mother’s efforts, she is equipped with significant power during pregnancy. She can accept and nurture her fetus, choose to terminate it, or face the loss of the fetus if a miscarriage occurs. Acknowledging the severity of her actions, the mother must be wary of the real consequences of her personal decisions, especially since they affect another life, not just her own. Considering this additional impact, she must act and think in ways that are compatible with her fetus’ state too. This allows the mother to realize her extensive abilities compared to those who have not experienced pregnancy, as well as the competency of her body that she would not have known prior to her pregnancy. The mother’s necessary ability to conceive and sustain the development of her fetus in her own body goes to show the importance of the mother’s role in preserving human life. Without the mother’s continuous nurturing of the fetus, it would be challenging to arrive at a live, healthy birth. Thus, the requisite of the mother’s ability to create new life, which ought to be acknowledged during pregnancy and onwards, reaffirms the significance of herself and her identity.^[4]

V. Prenatal Attachments as a Factor that Further Reaffirms the Mother’s Identity

This section outlines one final factor that reaffirms the mother’s identity throughout pregnancy. Given that the cited literature discusses how the mother’s self-subjectivity may weaken, split, and become objectified during her experience, I considered certain phenomena that could counterbalance such ambiguity in her self-identity and perception. The mother’s relationship with her fetus, particularly a prenatal attachment (Trombetta et al., 2021), is able to further reaffirm the mother’s identity. It is important to acknowledge that, for example, a female surrogate would likely have a different experience with forming a prenatal attachment with the fetus she carries. However, I will not focus on these diverse examples in this paper.

Prenatal attachment is “the parental emotional bonding with the fetus which gradually develops over the course of pregnancy… the affectionate tie that parents develop toward their unborn baby” (Trombetta et al., 2021). The construct of prenatal attachment was proposed “to systematically investigate the affective investment of the parents toward their fetus” (Trombetta et al., 2021). It is important to note that while the mother and the father can experience prenatal attachments to the fetus, I will only be focusing on the mother’s experience for this paper.

“Pre-natal Attachment and Parent-To-Infant Attachment: A Systematic Review” is “[coherent] with the assumption that the attachment relationship starts to develop during pregnancy” (Trombetta et al., 2021). As the mother spends nine months taking care of her fetus and with an awareness of how every decision impacts her fetus, it is natural for the mother to form an attachment with the being inside of her. As the mother is creating a new life alone, assuming that she is interested in a live, healthy birth, there is no doubt that she would feel affection and tenderness towards her fetus. In feeling such sentiments, the mother actively creates a relationship with her fetus. Researchers theorize:

[Prenatal attachment] begins in the parents’ mind on imaginary level through the development of mental representations of the future child… As pregnancy progresses, this attachment bond includes the imagined child, who is gradually experienced as a separate and differentiate human being through the contribution of fetal movements and fetal ultrasound (Trombetta et al., 2021).

Most important to note is that such prenatal attachment “begins in the parents’ mind” (Trombetta et al., 2021). The mother’s subjective emotions towards and personal attachment to the fetus arise firstly in her own mind. Her mind is a place inaccessible to any other. There are no public perspectives that can see what goes on in the mother’s mind, nor any medical procedures that can broadcast her thoughts to the public, contrasting how ultrasound portrays the fetus publicly. The mother controls what she thinks of her fetus, determines which of her thoughts are publicized, and maintains her relationship with her fetus in the way she desires. She regains self-subjectivity in terms of her sentiments and personal experience, as opposed to the previous references of its splitting and weakening. Essentially, the mother’s prenatal attachment to her fetus allows her to experience autonomy and control, which is absent during medical procedures or public discussions on pregnancy. Experiencing these personal affirmations of her subjective feelings towards and her confidential relationship with her fetus in itself is an act of reaffirming her identity.

Moreover, the mother is able to connect with her fetus as if it were a “separate and differentiate” (Trombetta et al., 2021) being, as if there was spatial difference and that her fetus is not part of herself. The attachment begins on an “imaginary level”, where the mother can imagine her fetus separate from the same bodily structure. Through her imagination, she distinguishes her identity from her fetus’ and can distance herself from the idea that the mother’s and her fetus’ identities are obscure during pregnancy. Through prenatal attachment, the mother, as she directly experiences only her own thoughts and beliefs that require nothing but her personal validation, reaffirms her perspective of herself and her fetus and, likewise, her identity.