Når ønsket om moderskab vækker bekymring

Resumé

When longing for motherhood causes concern
This article provides insights into how marginalized women’s motherhood, both historically and today, is a key concern for welfare interventions. More specifically, the article explores how notions of ‘appropriate motherhood’ shape welfare professionals’ use of baby simulators as an educational tool to train and guide the practices of marginalized women eager to become mothers. The article is based on material collected through a qualitative study of baby simulator interventions in Denmark. This includes interviews with welfare professionals as well as ethnographic observations of intervention practices. The findings demonstrate how notions of appropriate motherhood, informing welfare interventions, have shifted historically from moral toward more riskoriented understandings. Furthermore, the findings show that welfare professionals use the baby simulators to promote an ideal of appropriate motherhood, which is based on middle-class notions of care, self-control, independence, and labor market success.