This is an important and exciting addition to the debate about children, love and the inner life.

Does identifying and talking about maternal desire feed old notions about women's nature and justify restrictions of their rights? Or is it an opportunity to understand women more deeply? Maternal Desire shows that the iconic images of motherhood - from the sacrificial mother to the supermum - and the endless debates about what's best for children, obscure the profound meaning of mothering - and the desire to mother. Here is a book that gives a common voice to mothers and examines motherhood as an active and transforming experience.