Victorian MothersThere is no doubt that motherhood has changed throughout history in the way it is practiced and perceived. While it is difficult to classify motherhood as an "easy" task in any time period, Victorian mothers were among those who took it the hardest. For example, Natalie McKnight, author of Suffering Mothers in Mid-Victorian Novels, says, "When I began to study the lives of Victorian women, I sympathized with the many women who endured the pangs of labor only to die shortly after birth of the baby was born. As I continued my research, I began to feel more sympathy for those who survived" (McKnight 1). Victorian mothers were under enormous pressure and expectations when it came to mothering their children. Before that, mothers raised their children based on what they believed was natural and instinctive. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, mothers were expected to follow the conduct and medical books for wives, mothers, and newborns, as well as use new products on the market for mother and baby. The duties entrusted to the woman were "to maintain and develop the complete physical, mental and spiritual health of the child, practically without the help of the father" (McKnight 2). Mothers took care of domestic matters and their children, while men were free to focus on work and public affairs (Shiman 35). Motherhood, therefore, had become a skill that had to be learned rather than acquired by observing other women who had been mothers. In a broader sense, men, women and children each had their own "sphere". In the privacy of their own home, family members were divided into groups among children and other members of... middle of paper... failure who deemed them unsuitable parents. Furthermore, nineteenth-century mothers were essentially experimenting with a new form of parenting on their own, without the help of any previous mother to guide them. Although motherhood will never be "easy", Victorian mothers suffered in their attempts to be what society at the time considered the maternal ideal. Works Cited Gorham, Deborah. The Victorian girl and the feminine ideal. London: Croom Helm, 1982. Kane, Penny. Victorian families between reality and fiction. London: Macmillan, 1995. McKnight, Natalie. Suffering mothers in mid-Victorian novels. New York: St. Martin's, 1997. Shiman, Lillian Lewis. Women and leadership in nineteenth-century England. London: Macmillan, 1992. Thaden, Barbara. The maternal voice in Victorian fiction: rewriting the patriarchal family. New York: Garland, 1997.