Juggling identities of rheumatoid arthritis, motherhood and paid work – a grounded theory study

Abstract

The women attribute the highest priority to their professional identity, spending the majority of their time and energy in an effort to appear as "good stable workers". The disease is seen as a hindrance in this regard, and the illness identity is almost completely rejected. In motherhood, the women prioritize close interaction with their children, and deprioritize external activities. Extended outbreaks of the disease and issues regarding the children force the women to deprioritize working life. Implications for rehabilitation Juggling meaningful identities of rheumatoid arthritis, motherhood, and paid work challenge women in managing their everyday lives. Therefore, rehabilitation professionals should support individuals to develop new strategies to manage the challenges they experience regarding juggling motherhood and work ability. Work is a dominant identity marker for women with rheumatoid arthritis therefore, rehabilitation professionals have an important role to play in investigating possible ways for the individual to maintain employment or return to work. Living with rheumatoid arthritis and being a paid worker challenge women's role performance and thereby their identification as mothers. Therefore, rehabilitation professionals have to support the women and their families.

The Experience of people with rheumatoid arthritis living with fatigue: a qualitative metasynthesis

“…Work life is important for people with RA as it affects their identity, social relationships and the sense of normality in everyday life 29. Women with RA give the highest priority to their professional identity compared with a disease and motherhood identity 30. In this metasynthesis, we also found that people with RA prioritise work life and functional roles, and it is their leisure time and family time where RA-related fatigue bears the greatest impact.…”

Morsrollen er utfordrende for kvinner med en revmatisk sykdom

“…Utfordringene er relatert til å baere barna, til å leke med barna og til å innfri egne og andres forventninger til rollen som mor. Noen småbarnsmødre med en in ammatorisk artrittsykdom opplever seg selv som «mislykkede» i morsrollen fordi de ikke er i stand til å oppfylle rollen slik de hadde ønsket det (13).…”

Interactions between women with rheumatoid arthritis and nurses during outpatient consultations: A qualitative study

“…In connection with an earlier study on women's handling of RA, motherhood and working life (Feddersen et al, 2018), women were included according to the principles of purposeful sampling (Silverman, 2013) and theoretical sampling (Charmaz, 2014), which entails continuing to include participants and generate data until robust theoretical categories can be developed (Charmaz, 2014).…”

“…To be eligible, the following criteria had to be fulfilled: diagnosed with RA, involved in the labour market and pregnant or with at least one child living at home. The latter criteria was included because earlier studies have documented that women diagnosed with RA feel challenged in motherhood with responsibilities related to pregnancy and providing caregiving for children in the household (Feddersen et al, 2018;Kristiansen et al, 2012;Meade et al, 2013).…”

“…Despite symptoms and fluctuating trajectories, women often try to downplay the disease in social interactions with others, i.e., during paid work and motherhood responsibilities (Feddersen, Mechlenborg Kristiansen, Tanggaard Andersen, Horslev-Petersen, & Primdahl, 2018). It is recommended that people with RA be offered outpatient follow-up with an ongoing view to keep disease activity at bay and, thus, improve their quality of life (Smolen et al, 2016).…”