"Ser mãe é treta": narrativas de mulheres-mães primíparas sobre a constituição de suas maternidades

Abstract

Maternity is a category of analysis, which is influenced by its historical time and culture, directly influenced by discussions about gender relations. For a long time, motherhood gave women a specific place in society, and their concept was influenced by religious and economic discourses. In contemporary times, from feminist discussions, motherhood changes its meanings, which is influenced by the new place and expectations about women; while carrying the conservative signs and meanings about being a mother. In order to better understand the elements that influence these new meanings, the research focused on listening to the stories of the maternities of primiparous women about their experience, raising which are the elements that influenced their constitution. For this purpose, a qualitative research, of the exploratory descriptive type, was carried out. As data collection, the Life History method was used with ten women-mothers who were experiencing the first year of motherhood As an analysis of these stories, the Bardin Content Analysis method was applied. As a result, five categories were obtained: the desire for motherhood, the experience of pregnancy, the event of childbirth, the experience of postpartum, and being a woman and being a mother. It was observed that in all perinatal phases there are elements that can interfere in the constitution of motherhood, because the physical and emotional sensations, which women experience subjectively, influence the psychic transformations for the adoption of the parental position. Associated with individual elements, social aspects, such as new technologies, new discourses on motherhood, the role of women in contemporary society and the social relations established today, build new signs and ways of understanding and experiencing motherhood. It was found with this research that motherhood has numerous influences, which correspond to its sócio-cultural time, however it is crossed by the subjective contents of each life story. Such research provided the reflection on the new discourses on motherhood and the promotion of the elaboration of public policies related to emotional and material support to women-mothers.