MamaBlogger365 - Q&A with a Psychologist: What’s Up With Motherhood? An interview with Jessica Zucker, Ph.D. with Hollee Schwartz Temple, The New Perfect

Jessica Zucker is a L.A.-based psychologist who specializes in women's heath, especially transitions in motherhood. She'll be one of the featured panelists at the Museum of Motherhood's Mindful Mothering conference, Monday, November 7. There's still time to register! Click here for more info.

Why are moms so competitive with each other?

Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.: Culture sets up a troubling dynamic between women – mothers or not. Comparing ourselves to one another is a mainstay embedded in the fabric of cultural confusion and promotes separation rather than connection. Motherhood seems to stir profound insecurities for women as they traverse the simultaneously joyous, daunting, rewarding, and vulnerable journey that is parenthood. Women are often stymied by the overwhelming amount of time and energy parenting requires, leaving little room for pre-motherhood activities. Most people aren’t forthcoming about how anxious they feel, how isolating mothering can be, or how fulfilling it is to love a little person in such an inexplicable way. Competitiveness bubbles below the surface from pre-conception onward. Painfully insecure moments pool in the psyches of mothers as they contemplate a million tiny and meaningful decisions and feelings throughout the day.

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Dr. Jessica Zucker will be a featured speaker at the Museum of Motherhood's Mindful Mothering day conference on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011; visit MOMmuseum.org to register!

Support MamaBlogger365 and help the Museum of Motherhood secure a permanent home in 2011! Your tax-deductible donation in ANY amount will help us make our autumn POP-UP exhibit in NYC a permanent reality - visit our Members page to learn more.

Visit the Museum of Motherhood

NOW OPEN in NYC! Tues-Sun, 10:45-6:30

This interview was originally published by The New Perfect.

Photo credit: alvimann|MorgueFile

MamaBlogger365 - PBS's 'This Emotional Life': The Politics of Postpartum Bodies by Dr. Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.

A close friend of mine from graduate school was in town over the weekend, someone I hadn't seen since I was mid-way through my pregnancy. As we briskly walked toward each other, arms outstretched, brimming with wild enthusiasm about our long overdue rendezvous, Amalia blurts out from across the toddler trafficked park, "Oh my God, look at you, you don't even look like you had a baby! You're smaller than you were before."

I wasn't sure how I felt as we hugged, in the midst of awkwardly digesting her jubilant albeit off the cuff comment about the apparent erasure of my pregnancy. The embrace was cut short as she gently pushed me back to scan every inch of my postpartum body, unable to contain her energized description of how "little" I look, how "tiny" I am -- spilling with words she defines as every woman's dream. Or more to the point, every woman's goal.

Click here to read more!

Dr. Jessica Zucker will be a featured speaker at the Museum of Motherhood's Mindful Mothering day conference on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011; visit MOMmuseum.org to register!

Support MamaBlogger365 and help the Museum of Motherhood secure a permanent home in 2011! Your tax-deductible donation in ANY amount will help us make our autumn POP-UP exhibit in NYC a permanent reality - visit our Members page to learn more.

Visit the Museum of Motherhood
NOW OPEN in NYC! Tues-Sun, 10:45-6:30

MamaBlogger365 - Mother Earth by Aiya Art

Click here to view this week's full online exhibit.

Support MamaBlogger365 and help the Museum of Motherhood secure a permanent home in 2011! Your tax-deductible donation in ANY amount will help us make our September POP-UP exhibit in NYC a permanent reality - visit our Members page to learn more.

MamaBlogger365 - Happy Hormones by Elena Skoko

There was a moment when I felt I wanted a child. I opened my gates to the universe in an archaic dance invoking the ancient cheeky goddess Baubo. She had a laugh and fulfilled my wish. My consciousness burst into million fragments, my body liquefied into fire. I was forging my new self.

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MamaBlogger365, a year-long project coordinated by Mamapalooza, needs you! Tell us how you're re-framing motherhood and help the Museum of Motherhood secure a permanent home in 2011!

MamaBlogger365 - Pregnancy and Depression (or: Pregnant Women are Not So Smug) by Peryl Manning

Having recently posted the video “Pregnant Women Are Smug,” (which I stand by as being hilarious), I’ve been thinking lately of my own, and others’, experiences of pregnancy, and just how various these can be. I certainly learned during my own that the beatific image of the pregnant woman can be misleading.

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MamaBlogger365 needs you! Tell us how you're re-framing motherhood and help the Museum of Motherhood secure a permanent home in 2011!

Photo credit: expectancy by veggiegretz