According to the New York Times:

Parker, 23, is determined to buck the conventional wisdom that women can fulfill their potential as professional athletes and as parents as long as they tackle their lives like a to-do list, crossing one item off before starting on the next.

"I'm always the type of person that wants to prove people wrong," she said. "I just want to come back and show that you can be even stronger than before."

Parker's steely resolve and determination are admirable, and she has a husband, a nanny and family members to help her out. Additionally, her coworkers can relate: Five other team members on the Sparks are mothers — including Lisa Leslie — and Carla Christofferson, the Sparks' 41-year-old co-owner, is pregnant.

It's frustrating that Parker has to say she wants to come back "even stronger than before." She's a talented athlete, but clearly feels like she has something to prove. While it's true that Parker hasn't played a competitive game in 10 months, it's not like she suffered a debilitating injury. But her words are an answer to widely-held notions of how motherhood changes a woman — how people expect different, or possibly less of you, especially when it comes to your job. And, even more important: It speaks to the expectations this new mother has placed on herself.

Diapers and Jump Shots: Player Has Her Hands Full [NY Times]

Earlier: Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
Are Women Having Babies Earlier Because They Take Their Careers For Granted?

In April, a French Vogue shoot featured a "pregnant" model smoking and tossing a baby doll over her shoulder.

As Tatiana pointed out, if American Vogue were to portray the concept of motherhood, you'd get models holding babies and looking serene — "the mother of all clichés." She added: "French Vogue found the tenderness in mothering, but also the humor, the wackiness, the suggestion that it isn't perhaps natural to all women, and the surprise."

Additionally, in the July issue of Bazaar, MIlla Jovovich played a distracted working mom.





Obviously these shots differ in that there is a man present, but they certainly don't evoke the beaming, wholesome, Norman Rockwell concept of motherhood.

The new Italian Vogue shots include alcohol and cigarettes:






…As well as just plain-old avoidance:

There are a few ways to look at these images. Blogger Gwen from Sociological Images notes,

…Most countries don't share the American middle-class demonization of smoking or our concerns about the effects of second-hand smoke on children, or the idea that drinking cocktails around the kids is problematic (and remember, we used to give kids alcoholic drinks and Marlboros were marketed to moms). And many people don't believe that children need to be tended to every time they cry or look unhappy–that's a culturally and historically specific parenting ideal.

But a reader named Claire points out:

The message that motherhood might produce boredom, irritation, irreverence, and drive one to consume massive quantities of alcohol is one that I find refreshing, rather than appalling. Although this spread glamorizes the condition of being trapped within the confines of domesticity, can we not also interpret it as depicting the failure of domesticity and motherhood as a norm? And isn't the critique of a norm a productive act?

Good point. And here some more questions: Do these magazine editors want to start a dialogue about deconstructing the visual clichés of motherhood? Or do they just want edgy photoshoots? Does it matter? And even if they're not neglecting the kids — why all the bored, distracted moms?

Rich Moms Are Bad Moms: Vogue Italia's "Vagaries of Fashion" [Sociological Images]

Earlier: French Vogue And Ambivalent Modern Motherhood
Mr. Big Plays Housewife? How Bazaar

According to a report by Bonnie Rochman,

As recently as 20 years ago, some in the medical community were still using the male body as their research prototype and extrapolating for women. The approach, as summarized by Anne Drapkin Lyerly, an obstetrician and bioethicist at Duke University, was "If you happen to have boobs and a uterus, then we'll adjust things."

These days, women are included (the "First Wave"), but, Rochman points out, more data on pregnant women is needed. That's why "an élite group" of 30 doctors, ethicists, scientists and government officials gathered in Washington this spring to launch a movement they're calling the Second Wave of clinical research.

As Rochman notes, Chronic illnesses like depression, diabetes and hypertension don't magically disappear during pregnancy. And more and more women are having children later in life, increasing the chances that they have other health problems. How you you weigh the benefits of certain drugs for the mother versus the health risk to the fetus? Given shifts in her metabolism and weight gain, what is what is the appropriate dosage for a mom-to-be? And, of course, what issues arise regarding testing drugs on pregnant women?

"Everyone thinks, Oh, my God, research on pregnant women! All kinds of ethical flags go up," says Ruth Faden, director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. "We don't have to start with high drama." There's enough "low-hanging fruit," she says, "that we could keep lots of medical researchers busy for a long time."

Understanding the Risks (and Rewards) of Pills and Pregnancy [Time]

NPR's Michelle Martin discusses the problems military moms face with a panel of three women who have dealt with them firsthand. She asks them about the recent case of Lisa Pagan, the mother who brought along her children when she reported for duty. Pagan received an honorable discharge after arguing that she was unable to be deployed abroad due to her responsibilities to her family. Surprisingly, all three of the women disapprove - to varying extents - of Pagan's choice.

"When you are a military parent, you have to have that a plan B of who is going to take care of my child when I deploy, because it's not a matter of if you will deploy, but when you will deploy," says Lt. Carey Lohrenz. She goes on to remind us that military dads face the same problems, and it is the job of both the parents and the military to figure out an adequate system of childcare: "Military parents need affordable, dependable childcare when children are young... All service members across the board require more family support services. It is not just the women."

Lt. Linda Maloney agrees that it is the responsibility of the military to "support [enlisted parents] and the family members that are left behind." While she believes that Pagan should have better planned for the possibility of being called for duty, she also would like to see the military rethink the way they deal with mothers on duty.

Pilar Arteaga, a petty officer first class in the Navy, is a single mother, which makes her situation somewhat different. Her pregnancy was unexpected, which only made it more difficult to deal with the challenges of military life. For her, the biggest issue of being a woman in the navy is the constant struggle to "prove yourself" to the men. She feels that the "single parent card" is played far too frequently, and that women like Pagan end up making military moms look bad.

Ultimately, Lt. Lohrenz calls for the military to educate continuously: "It goes back once again to being a leadership challenge...not just a one time, one lecture initiative, but ongoing training to help prevent unplanned pregnancies... I think it is leadership, leadership, leadership."

'For Family, For Country': Military Moms Do It All [NPR]
NC Mom Recalled To Army Duty Will Be Discharged [ABC]

So what is a single woman of (OMG) 35 to do? My mother was 23 when she had me, so I'm clearly not following in her footsteps. Then again, it's not like any of my closest friends have kids either. Anna asked me if I worry about being "too old." [I asked her nicely! Also: I am the same age. -Ed.] And my answer was: Only when I have to read stories reminding me that I'm too old! What's really infuriating is when doctors accuse women like me of "waiting." Like I'm just sitting here, daydreaming, waiting to get knocked up. Doctors in these articles love to say that the body didn't evolve to have babies so late. It's science. Science yes, but science that ignores the social and cultural forces at work. What if you're working on getting the rest of your life straight? Or haven't met the right guy? Or have the right guy but not enough money? Or have the right guy and money but aren't emotionally ready? Are you just supposed to have a kid anyway? Is the "wait till the time is right" attitude actually an unrealistic yearning and a spoiled-brat mentality? And is a woman who decides she can't wait any longer — and gets knocked up before conditions are "ideal" — really doing what's best for the baby? Not biologically, but logically?

Late motherhood: Why babies can't wait [Independent]
Bringing Up Babies, And Defying the Norm [Washington Post]

Related: Majority Of French Children Born To Unwed Mothers [Reuters]
Unfit To Be A Mother? [Guardian]