Research Grants

Transition to motherhood: social and medical aspects of first childbirth. Social Science Research Council, 1974-1979.

Women’s experiences of childbirth: continuities and discontinuities in social and medical aspects of first childbirth (with M Wiggins, V Strange). BUPA Foundation, 2007-2010.

Becoming a mother: a research synthesis of women’s views on the experience of first-time motherhood (with G Brunton, M Wiggins). Economic and Social Research Council, 2009-2010.

Women’s experiences of childbirth: long-term follow up of social and medical aspects of first childbirth (with V Strange, M Wiggins). BUPA Foundation 2010-2011.

Looking back on becoming a mother: longitudinal perspectives on maternity care and the transition to motherhood (with M Wiggins, H Austerberry, M Sawtell). Economic and Social Research Council 2011-2012.

50 Years of Becoming a Mother, Economic and Social Research Council/UKRI Charlotte Faircloth, Ann Oakley and Meg Wiggins, 2025-2029

Publications

Books

Becoming a Mother Book
(1979) Becoming a Mother. Oxford: Martin Robertson. Under the title From Here to Maternity. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981. Reprinted with new Introduction, 1986. (New York: Schocken Books, reissued with new introduction, 1986.) New edition with new introduction as From Here to Maternity: Becoming a mother, Policy Press, 2018.

Women Confined Book(1980) Women Confined: Towards a sociology of childbirth. Oxford: Martin Robertson. (New York: Schocken Books, reprinted with new Introduction, 1986.)

Chapter, articles, reports etc

Graham H, Oakley A (1981) Competing ideologies of reproduction: medical and maternal perspectives on pregnancy and birth. In: Roberts H (ed.) Women, Health and Reproduction. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp 50-74. Also in: Whitelegg E, Arnot M, Bartels E, Beecher V, Birke L, Himmelweit S, Leonard D, Ruehl S, Speakman MA (eds) (1982) The Changing Experience of Women. Oxford: Martin Robertson, pp 309-326. 12.

(1981) Interviewing women: a contradiction in terms? In: Roberts H (ed.) Doing Feminist Research. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp 30-61.

Oakley A (1981) Normal motherhood: an exercise in self-control. In: Hutter B, Williams G (eds) Controlling Women: The normal and the deviant. London, Croom Helm, pp 79-107.

Oakley A (1990) From here to maternity. In: Dunsmuir A, Williams L (eds) How to do Social Research. London: Unwin Hyman, pp 30-34.

Oakley A, Chamberlain G (1981) Medical and social factors in postpartum depression. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 1: 182-187

Oakley A (1983) Social consequences of obstetric technology: how to measure ‘soft’ outcomes. Birth 10:99-108.

Oakley A (1984) On measuring the social consequences of obstetric technology. Midwife Health Visitor and Community Nurse 20 (10): 378-382.

Brunton G, Wiggins M, Oakley A (2012) Social and medical influences on becoming a mother: a methodological analysis of UK research (poster presentation) EQUATOR Scientific Symposium, Freiburg, Germany.

Oakley A (2015) Interviewing women again: power, time and the gift. Sociology 1-19. 206.

Oakley A (2016) A small sociology of maternal memory. The Sociological Review 64 (3): 533-549.

Oakley A, Wiggins M, Strange V, Sawtell M, Austerberry H (2011) Becoming a mother: continuities and discontinuities over three decades. In: Ebtehaj F, Herring J, Johnson MH, Richards M (eds) Birth Rights and Rites. Oxford, Hart Publishing, pp 9-27.

Brunton G, Wiggins M, Oakley A (2010) Becoming a Mother: A research synthesis of women’s views on the experience of first-time motherhood. ESRC End of Award Report.

Brunton, G, Wiggins M, Oakley A (2011) Becoming a Mother: A research synthesis of women’s views on the experience of first-time motherhood. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London.