This presentation results from the project ABRIL MATER: Motherhood and Childbirth before and after the Revolution – a research that seeks to understand the impact of the social and political transformations catalyzed by the Revolution of 1974 on the representations and experiences of motherhood in Portugal.

A distinctive feature of this research lies in the historically rich and complex period it addresses, offering a unique opportunity to understand women's perceptions and experiences related to motherhood during this specific juncture. Furthermore, the project comprehensively examines the evolution of healthcare and public policies related to motherhood in Portugal during and after the April Revolution, drawing on testimonies from women who became mothers and raised their children during that period.

In this presentation we will share particularities of the ongoing fieldwork, highlighting the serendipitous nature of our empirical research, which encompasses, in addition to the collection of testimonies, a diversity of archival resources, including personal records, public archives, audiovisual materials and press documentation .

Finally, this presentation will already offer a snapshot of the preliminary findings of our project, highlighting the adaptability and resilience of maternal perspectives during times of significant social transformation, such as those that preceded and followed the 25th April Revolution.

This paper analyses the experiences and social perceptions of abortion that can be heard in the testimonies – and silences – of women who lived in Soviet Lithuania during the 1950s-70s. This paper aims to probe thehistoriographical argument that abortion was normalised and socially accepted in the Soviet context: to what extent was abortion normalised in the historically Catholic republic of Lithuania after its re-legalisation in 1955? What methodologies have informed and which, if any, proved this assumption? Through an examination of published diaries, memoirs, abortion-related fiction, and oral history interviews, I argue that scholars have misinterpreted the ubiquity of abortion in the Soviet context as a cultural normalisation of the practice as a result of an over-reliance upon masculine accounts of abortion, and research limited in focus to the metropole, both geographically and politically. Evidence suggests that attitudes towards abortion in Lithuania were shaped by enduring Catholic anti-abortion narratives intertwined with senses of Lithuanian nationalism. I propose that while abortion was common, choosing to terminate a pregnancy remained an embarrassing and painful procedure with adverse physical, psychological, and social consequences. The perceptions of abortion also speak of how the particular social environment of Soviet Lithuania of the 1950s-70s interpreted broader concepts of family planning, motherhood, and reproductive choice, and how their understanding evolved throughout those decades.

In recent decades, there has been a notable surge in single parenthood in Europe. Nearly 85% of single parents are single mothers. Most single mothers assumed custody over their children following separation from a partner, and most research have focused on this group of single mothers. Studies on women who start motherhood while not cohabiting with a partner regardless of marital status (single mothers at childbirth), are largely lacking or focus only on disadvantaged young women who conceived unintentionally.

In Belgium, where abortion is legal and medically assisted reproduction for single women is accessible, single motherhood at childbirth could be a result of women exercising their right to be a parent. The decision to be a single mother is also influenced by socioeconomic status (SES) and availability of childrearing support (i.e., through the woman’s parents).

In this research, I will estimate the prevalence and describe the changing face of single motherhood at childbirth in Belgium from 1995 to 2015, using register data. I will show that this type of motherhood is increasing, and that more women who are highly educated and in older ages (aged 35+) are becoming single mothers at childbirth in recent years. These numbers are not reflected in official statistics that only differentiate births to married and unmarried women. Then I will conduct event history analysis to estimate the probability of being a single mother at first birth for women aged 14 to 49 (reproductive age), taking into account the effect of SES and proximity to parents.