Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the entanglements between (Catholic) religion and (feminist) spirituality in the context of holistic mothering in Portugal and their consequences in terms of female agency and empowerment.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on ethnographic research about holistic mothering in Portugal. I use holistic mothering as an umbrella term to cover different mothering choices, which are rooted in the assumption that pregnancy, childbirth and early childhood are important spiritual occasions for both mother and child. Holistic mothers choose alternative practices such as homebirth or attachment parenting that are intensely criticized in the Portuguese context. Although it is evident that not all women choosing these ways of birthing or parenting in Portugal do this for religious reasons, the mothers I encountered described their choices as being intimately related to the kind of spirituality they practiced.

Holistic mothers refuse and criticize the Catholic norms and values they received from their parents and /or their social environment as patriarchal and hierarchical and embrace different forms of spirituality they perceive as non-hierarchical and gender-equal. However, I will show that in a traditionally Catholic country like Portugal, Our Lady, the Mother of God, still represents for many women an almost unattainable model of motherly love and care that they struggle to overcome. In this context holistic mothers contest but also reproduce Catholic ideals about motherhood and gender identities.

Drawing on recent critiques of the religion-spirituality dichotomy as well as on texts exploring the intersections between religion, gender and mothering, this paper analyses the entanglements of (Catholic) religion and (feminist) spirituality in the context of holistic mothering in Portugal and their consequences in terms of female agency and empowerment.