Mother Voices: a new understanding of women's experiences as mothers in the context of mental distress

Idealised motherhood sets up expectations and assumptions about how women should mother their children. Mothers are expected to invest all their time and energy in caring for their children. Empirical literature on mothers... [ view full abstract ]

Idealised motherhood sets up expectations and assumptions about how women should mother their children. Mothers are expected to invest all their time and energy in caring for their children. Empirical literature on mothers experiencing mental health problems (MHP)suggests that they are seen as less than ideal mothers, pose a risk to their child’s developmentand focuses on mothers as ‘patients’ as distinct from their roles as mothers.
The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of mothering with women in the context of mental health problems, and explore these women’s preferences for psychological, emotional, social and practical support. Ethical approval was granted by the University ethics committee. Forty two women volunteered to participate in this study. All the women had been involved with mental health services and had various medical diagnoses including schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder and depression. Data were collected through semi structured interviews.
Feminist standpoint theory was used to explore how the biomedical understanding of mental distress has impacted on the lives of this group of women and how their knowledge, embedded within lived experience, has been ignored and marginalised.
The findings challenge traditional views of women experiencing MHP’s as ‘unfit’ mothers and demonstrate their strengths as women and mothers, their commitment to their children, and the strategies they use to ensure their continuing involvement with their children in the context of increasing distress. The findings also indicate how the women, despite being framed by the mental health services as ‘patients’ and potential risk to their children, began to resist both the oppressive ideologies of biomedicine and patriarchal motherhood. In so doing the findings offer guidance for education, practice and policy and provide direction for furture research in the area of maternal mental distress.