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

Abstract

Patentowo of people with intellectual disability is stilo a sensitive and controversial issue. Despite of implementation of the concept of normalization, subjectivity and emancipation, the right to fulfill parental roles is taken away from these people. It comes from a social perception of people with intellectual disabilities as unable to self-reliant and responsible functioning. Previous studies show needs of this group of people, who want not only to get married, but also to express themselves in parental roles.             The aim of the article is to present the result of studies related to subjective interpreting and constructing biographies of mothers with intellectual disabilities. The researches were governed by those people’s insufficient knowledge about defining motherhood and willingness to get answers to questions related to things, which from mother’s perspective, are individual and inimitable. Researches were set in an interpretative paradigm and biographical method was used. In thematic narrative interviews took part six women/mothers with intellectual disability who have children. During analysis there were separated few categories, which shows motherhood from subjective mothers’ experiences perspective. Categories isolated during analysis and interpretation made a wide range of individual meanings given to motherhood, which is experienced by women with intellectual disability. The studies, based on mothers’ personal interpretations, showed different faces of motherhood, which is defined as love, happiness, satisfaction, dream, but also as duty, difficulty, fear, loneliness, helplessness or even failure. The studies also showed social and cultural context in which mothers were set. Meanings given to a motherhood were based on subjective women’s experiences and they may be a result of lack of full acceptance of people’s with intellectual disabilities relationships and their parenthood. It may also be a result of participants’ struggles not only with children’s behaviour and growth issues, but also with effects of their own disability.