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Does motherhood change a woman’s identity? And how much do such changes depend on a woman’s social background?

These are just two of the fascinating issues being addressed in an OU project researching the impact of that most life-changing of experiences – becoming a mother.

How women make the transition to motherhood is the theme of a three-year project funded by The Economic and Social Research Council and being done by Wendy Hollway, Ann Phoenix and Heather Elliott. The psychology professors’ research in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, is studying 20 new mothers from Bangladeshi, African Caribbean and white ethnic groups.

“We wanted to explore what happens to women’s identities in the process of becoming mothers for the first time,” said Prof Hollway. “There has been a huge amount of research into motherhood but it hasn’t explored deeply the life-changing nature of becoming a mother. How do ethnicity, race, culture, religion, age, social class and gender intersect with motherhood identities?”

Prof Phoenix said the researchers had already seen the mothers facing challenges in how they adapted to their new role. “They’re having to negotiate these new identities,” she said. “They’re discovering what it means to take charge of a baby’s life, to have that as a new priority – and how that affects their relationship with their partners, and with their own mothers.”

The researchers deliberately chose Tower Hamlets as a diverse borough with a mix not only of ethnic groups, but of people from different class backgrounds. “Some mothers are negotiating the return to their professional careers, others are contemplating getting other types of jobs, while others are staying with their babies full time,” said Prof Phoenix.

Some emerging findings are more surprising than others. “Some of the mothers have said that they sometimes feel they want their ‘lives back’, said Prof Phoenix. “They recall that they used to do whatever they wanted without having to consider being responsible for this new person in their lives. And one thing we didn’t expect was the fluidity of housing – lots of these new mothers move house in the first year of their children’s lives.”

The study continues until the end of 2007, with interviews ongoing and six of the mothers being seen regularly by observers trained in a psychoanalytically-informed method. These observers are trying to see aspects of the mothers’ changing identity as it emerges in relation to their baby and others in the household.

“This is a psycho-social study,” said Prof Phoenix. “We wanted to look at the women’s experiences of motherhood in the social setting of Tower Hamlets and their different housing, job and family arrangements.”

The researchers hope that the study, Identities in Process: Becoming Bangladeshi, African Caribbean and White Mothers, will inform health and social care practice and policies concerned with motherhood. “It is widely believed that good mothering is one of the most influential factors in achieving a good society,” added Prof Hollway. “A better understanding of becoming a mother within different cultural practices will inform service provision and promote social inclusion.”