Motherhood in the Context of Normative Discourse: Birth Stories of Mothers of Children with Down Syndrome

Abstract

Using birth stories as our object of inquiry, this article examines the ways in which normative discourses about gender, disability and Down syndrome construct the birth stories of three mothers of children with Down syndrome. Their stories are composed of the mothers' recollections of the first hours after birth as a time when their infants are separated from them and their postpartum needs are ignored. Together, their stories illustrate socio-cultural tropes that position Down syndrome as a dangerous form of the "other" and mothers who give birth to children with Down syndrome as implicated in transgressing cultural norms.

Shatter Not the Branches of the Tree of Anger: Mothering, Affect, and Disability

“…6. This paragraph reflects what the mothers told Susan Gabel and Kathy Kotel (Gabel and Kotel 2015).…”

“…My experience of mothering also is grounded in ableism. I use “mother” as a subject position, a locus point in power networks (DiQuinzio ) that associate motherhood with socially valued children (Lavlani , 278; Gabel and Kotel ). To bridge motherhood as institution with mothering as my embodied experience, I use Michel Foucault's theory of disciplinary power rendering mothers like me isolated by the normative discourses of motherhood (Foucault ; Gabel and Kotel ) and emotionally pliable via the strategies, or micro‐physics, of power (Foucault ; Lieb ) operating in personal space, guiding individual conduct (Foucault ), and authorizing or denying emotions.…”

“…Instead, she is expected to smile, gratefully accept compliments about her unfailing dedication to her “damaged” child, and confess, “Yes, my child is damaged goods.” Very often, mothers who give birth to infants with Down syndrome are expected to have misgivings, worries, and doubts insidiously dissociated from structural hierarchies that devalue disabled people and, by extension, their mothers. The individualization of affect serves structure because it draws attention to mothers via shame and away from architectural hierarchies reinforced by the normative discourses of gender and disability that govern the mothers’ labor, delivery, and child‐rearing (Gabel and Kotel ).…”

“… Gabel and Kotel () do not theorize shame but the narratives they report provide material for theorizing shame in this section. …”

“Yeah that Made a Big Difference!”: The Importance of the Relationship between Health Professionals and Fathers Who Have a Child with Down Syndrome

“…Furthermore, the majority of studies looking specifically at DS are presented from the female perspective, with research tending to focus on reporting data solely from mothers (e.g. Pillay et al 2012;Gabel and Kotel 2015;Choi and Riper 2016). This means that despite there being an identified need, fathers who have a child with Down syndrome are frequently under-represented in current literature (Buckley 2002;Cuskelly et al 2008).…”