Critical conversations around mothering: mothering as marginal and mothering from the margins.

This article considers the experiences of oppression and the possibilities for empowerment when people mother, particularly from the margins. Drawing on key emerging theoretical examinations of motherhood, this article details four projects which foreground mothers' experiences, voices and agency as central to achieving optimal health and wellbeing. The projects focus on: (1) valuing mothering and mothers through a community arts project; (2) the experience of mothering for those who are artists with an experience of mental ill-health; (3) a community program which engages mothers as volunteers to support new mothers; and (4) the impacts of the 'NO to marriage equality' campaign in Ireland on families, children and parents, and its relevance to Australia. Based on feminist principles, these initiatives highlight the role of broader structural factors that impact on mothers' experiences and health, along with the ways local communities and the social and political systems are set up to support mothers (or not). These projects highlight some of the tensions and opportunities that emerge for community psychologists who work with and alongside mothers, and identify principles for ensuring that mothering is all-inclusive, recognises diverse and multiple identities and family structures, and is an empowering rather than an oppressive experience.