Narratives About Their Children by Mothers Hospitalized on a Psychiatric Unit

Abstract

The diagnosis of "mental illness" is accompanied by negative implications regarding a person's competence. Self- and other-descriptions about the "patient" are embedded within broader cultural and societal discourses, influencing his/her relationships. The parental role seems to be one of the most sensitive, especially for women. Mothers hospitalized in psychiatric units often have to separate themselves from their children either temporarily, during hospitalization, or permanently, after a loss of custody. However, many studies have shown that mothering remains important for them. We interviewed 20 women, inpatients on a psychiatric unit and mothers of 3.5-18-year-old children, recording their narratives about their children and exploring their thoughts and understanding of the concepts of motherhood and mental illness. We also explored the way in which the mother-child dyad interacted with the family and its social context. Most mothers had a consistent and coherent narrative about their children and they had certain expectations of them. The mother-child bond was strong, even when the children had been removed from their mothers' custody. However, mothers were facing great difficulties with their partner and with the broader family context. Also, the social discourses regarding mental illness, (e.g., violence and incapability for mothering), were extremely oppressive for these women. They felt that they were the victims of societal attitudes even before they became pregnant. These findings suggest the importance of listening to the voices of these women; acknowledging their competence in the therapeutic context; involving them with their families, and in legal and social contexts; and in planning supportive programs for them.

When Mothers Leave Their Children Behind

“…25 Another study found that 18 of 20 mothers hospitalized on an inpatient psychiatry unit had "coherent maternal narratives" of their children and fought to maintain contact, even when living apart. 17 Separation may thus be viewed as temporary by many mothers, or even integrated into a new kind of mother-child relationship, with anxiety symptoms and worry over the child predominating.…”

Therapeutic Factors in a Group for Parents with Mental Illness

“…Many of the sources of parenting stress raised by parents with mental illness are generic to all parents, while others are specific to the situation of parents living with mental illness (Nicholson et al 1998). Issues that parents with mental illness have identified as specific to their situation include dealing with the stigma of mental illness, which limits their ability to freely discuss areas of concern, managing day-to-day parenting whilst managing mental illness, the side effects of medications that could impair their ability to parent (Savidou et al 2003) and social isolation (Nicholson et al 1998). Parents with mental illness are vulnerable to multiple stressors besides the risk associated directly with the mental illness: they are at high risk of living in poverty and have very low employment rates.…”

Families with parental mental illness: supporting children in psychiatric and social services

“…Furthermore, studies describing how parents relate to their children, show that parents often felt tired, having difficulties in motivating themselves, which contributed to a low interaction with their children, and that one of the side effects of the medication was having trouble to concentrate (Evenson et al, 2008;Rampou et al, 2015). Nevertheless, several parents in the studies talked about how important their children were to them and how they strived to be a good parent Diaz-Caneja & Johnson, 2004;Evenson et al, 2008;Perera et al, 2014;Savvidou et al, 2003). They were stressed by the fact that when they, for example, needed to seek psychiatric care, they did not know how to handle the situation of the children (Evenson et al, 2008).…”