The report discusses various feminist theories of motherhood, focusing on its historical, economic, and social-psychological context in American society. Mothering, in its contemporary configuration, is intrinsic to individual women's sense of self and identity. Preliminary qualitative data collected from crack-smoking mothers are used to describe their strategies for combining crack and motherhood, managing their feelings of guilt, and relinquishing the mothering role as both a consequence and a strategy of their drug abuse. The paper discusses some links between 19th-century political solutions for so-called unfit families and child removal policies enacted recently. 5 references