Motherhood consists in a symbolic and social structure like fatherhood but also concerns a real (Lacan) experience to the extent that it cannot be entirely reduced to the symbolic. This particularity creates a methodological difficulty in approaching conceptually maternity. The mother's genital desire for the lover and the sexual union creates the wish of pregnancy. This desire reflects that the young woman has attained an important stage in her sexual development and presupposes the elaboration of her conflicts with the archaic object as well as with the oedipal mother.