The ‘ART’ of (Re)Production: Understanding Motherhood Beyond Biological Destiny

Abstract

This article examines how the technological intervention of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART)3 has had a profound impact on the sociocultural practices surrounding motherhood in India. The experience of motherhood has now been divided among different individuals: the genetic mother, the gestational mother, and the social mother. This expansion of motherhood roles has led to the re-emergence of co-mothering practices, where a child is nurtured by someone other than the birth mother. As nuclear heteronormative families became the norm in India, traditional co-mothering by grandmothers and aunts went out of practice. With rising infertility and the rearrangement of familial structures through single and queer parenting, ART treatments have become socially endorsed alternatives. This article examines the representation of ART-enabled mothering in Bollywood to understand its reception and practice in the Indian sociocultural context. Through a thematic analysis of Filhaal (dir. Gulzar, 2002), Good Newwz (dir. Mehta, 2019), and Mimi (dir. Utekar, 2021), this article explores how the biological experience of motherhood is being reinterpreted by mothers, and how they navigate the stigma associated with infertility and non-biological mothering. Most importantly, this article probes how traditional family structure and gender roles are being restructured following the advent of ART-enabled motherhood. © (2025), (Bridgewater State College). All rights reserved.