Maternal responsibility for health in the household

Abstract

Maternal responsibility for household health is a fusion of love and labor; affective concern for health coexists with health-related activities. I examined household health production experiences from the perspective of poor women living in the southwestern United States. The responsibilities described by poor Mexican American and Anglo American women for health in their households differed along cultural lines. The Mexican American women emphasized they were responsible for cures and for caregiving beyond the nuclear household. In comparison, Anglo American women stated they were responsible for prevention and minimized their health responsibilities outside their household. Negotiation of maternal health responsibility among household members generated conflict and divisiveness. Poor and minority women's experiences expand the traditional concept of self-care.

Mexican-Origin Mothers’ Experiences Using Children’s Health Care Services

“…The pediatric emergency room was listed as the "usual source of care" for 36% of immigrant Latino mothers in one study (Zambrana, Ell, Dorrington, Wachsman, & Hodge, 1994), underscoring the fact that overall underutilization co-occurs with a heavy reliance on emergency services. Although Mexican-origin parents in this study and others (L. Clark, 1995;Kay, 1977) describe household management of children's symptoms with tea and over-the-counter remedies, there is little evidence that household-based care and the services of curanderos (folk healers) substitute for professional health care services (Andersen, Lewis, Giachello, Aday, & Chin, 1981;Higginbotham, Trevino, & Ray, 1990). The Mexicanorigin women in this study described their household-based care of symptomatic children as part of their caregiving relationship to their children but not as a substitute for professional care.…”

Mexican Immigrant Mothers' Expectations for Children's Health Services

“…Cross-culturally and historically women-particularly mothersreport responsibilities for maintaining health in their households and when and where to seek professional health care services for children's illnesses (Bauwens, 1977;Clark, 1993Clark, , 1995Finerman, 1989;Kay, 1977;Mendelson, 2005). Therefore, semistructured interviews were conducted with mothers in their homes using standard ethnographic data collection methods (Atkinson & Hammersley, 1994;Fontana & Frey, 1994;Lincoln & Guba, 1985;Spradley, 1979).…”

Health-Related Quality of Life of Mothers: A Review of the Research

“…health (Van Lerberghe, Manuel, Matthews, & Wolfheim, 2005) In addition, researchers have demonstrated that mothers are the gatekeepers of child and family health (Clark, 1995;Jackson & Mannix, 2004;Luman, McCauley, Shefer, & Chu, 2003;Maynard, Galuska, Blanck, & Serdula, 2003;Pack, Krisnamurthy, Cottrell, Stanton, D'Alessandri, & Burns, 2005). Van Lerberghe and colleagues (2005), state that the health of mothers has a major impact on the health of their children.…”