Motherhood of a woman with intellectual disability – retrospection of biographical experiences

Abstrakt

The parenthood of persons with an intellectual disability continues to be a sensitive and controversial issue. Although the concepts of normalization, subjectivity and emancipation are actively implemented, the right to engage in parental roles is denied to such persons. Among other things, this is due to social perception, in which persons with intellectual disabilities are incapable of self-reliant and responsible functioning. Previous studies have demonstrated that such persons do have legitimate needs, including the desire to be married as well as to seek fulfilment as parents.

This paper sets out to discuss the findings of studies concerned with subjective interpretations and biography-building among mothers with intellectual disabilities. Such   studies were guided by the need to address insufficient knowledge of how such persons define motherhood and the search for answers on what is individual and inimitable from a mother’s perspective. The study relied on an interpretative paradigm and took advantage of the biographical method,  examining the experience of six women/mothers with an intellectual disability through thematic narrative interviews. A number of categories were distinguished in the course of analysis in order to describe motherhood from the standpoint of subjective experience.

The categories distinguished in the course of analysis and interpretation revealed a wide range of individual meanings given to motherhood experienced by women with intellectual disabilities. Based on personal interpretations,  the study revealed various facets of motherhood, defined as love, happiness, satisfaction, dream, but also as duty, difficulty, fear, loneliness, helplessness or even failure. Moreover, insights were gained into the social and cultural context in which the mothers interviewed happen to function. The meanings attached to motherhood were rooted in subjective experience and, as such, may be due to the fact that relationships and the parenthood of persons with intellectual disabilities are seldom, if ever, accepted. They may also result from the challenges that the study participants face, struggling with their children’s behaviour and growth issues as well as with the aftermath of their own disability.