Social scientists and human service practitioners explore maternal absence within the social and historical context of parenting in Canada, the US, Australia, and Britain. Among their topics are women separated from their babies lost to adoption, lone mothers and the practice of child rescue in 1901-30, and perspectives of substance-using women and

Examines the phenomenon of unbecoming a mother - the process of coming to live apart from biological children - within the social and historical context of parenting in Australia, Canada, Britain, and the United States with critical observations from social workers, poloicymakers, and historians.