Queer kinship: Experiences of double-motherhood in Brazil

Abstract

A survey was conducted with nine Brazilian cisgender, non-heterosexual women who are mothers, with the aim of understanding the challenges faced by double-motherhood in Brazil. Nine interviews and one focus group were conducted online and asynchronously through WhatsApp. The data was transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis. The findings revealed four categories: IC as a form of resistance; violence and LGBTphobia against queer motherhood; the invisibility of queer motherhood in relation to the state; and queer subjectivity. This research concludes that double-motherhood can be seen as a form of resistance, as the mothers use technologies, such as home insemination.

Family-Centered Care for LGBTQ+ Parents of Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: An Integrative Review

“…To ensure the validity of their findings, Suter and colleagues [ 63 ] reported that the research team (a) maintained an analytic audit trail of data analysis and analytic decisions, (b) included data exemplars in the results section to demonstrate the link between raw data and analysis, and (c) used investigator triangulation and referential adequacy to verify the initial thematic analysis and interplay analysis. We were not able to find specific mentions of steps taken to enhance rigor in the studies by Hudak [ 66 ] and Ril and colleagues [ 67 ].…”

“…Ril et al [ 67 ] sought to better understand the experience of double motherhood, which is the “shared experience of motherhood between two non-heterosexual cisgender women” (p. 2) by interviewing and conducting online focus groups with nine Brazilian cisgender lesbian or bisexual women who were mothers. One participant, Cloe, shared that she was not allowed to go with her daughter to the NICU because Cloe was a non-biological mother.…”

“…Although we were able to infer sources of strength from the included studies, none of the authors of the included studies specifically named sources of strength or resilience as such. This could be because authors of five of the included studies designed their interview questions to elicit information about challenges experienced by LGBTQ+ parents, namely heterosexism [ 66 ]; discursive legitimacy challenges [ 62 , 63 ]; being mothers and co-mothers within the context of potentially oppressive family, social, and political structures [ 64 ]; and challenges faced by double-motherhood [ 67 ]. By contrast, McKelvey [ 65 ] simply asked participants to tell the story of their postpartum experiences, without explicit focus on challenges faced.…”

“… Instances of stigma/discrimination (1), strength/resilience (2), and family-centered care (3) for LGBTQ+ parents of NICU infants in included studies [ 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 ]. …”