Liminal mothers' negotiation of conflicting service consumption

Pregnancy is a significant period of transition, transforming ‘women’ into ‘mothers’. The mid or liminal phase of transition is particularly ripe for consumer researchers. Transformative services research (TSR) considers that services may deliver objective wellbeing outcomes (e.g. consumer health). This paper extends TSR into liminality and considers that services may also encompass hedonic (mood, satisfaction and happiness) and eudiamonic (mastery, autonomy, positive relations, and self-acceptance) dimensions. The paper unpacks women’s service experiences to enrich and expand understanding of positive and negative consumption meanings. It identifies that unanticipated outcomes emerge as a feature of transformative services. It demonstrates that services situates new mothers at the centre of a multiplicity of consumption. This may both overwhelm and act as transitional resource developing mothers as postmodern bricoleurs.