Mothers’ Health Narratives

The ways in which mothers define health, their health experiences, and expectations for themselves and their daughters are the focus front in this chapter. It also investigates the ways that mothers communicate expectations about their daughters’ health. Four themes emerge in the mothers’ narratives of health: (1) mothering practices of health; (2) implicit and explicit barriers to health, including diet and exercise; (3) how race and gender inform their experiences navigating health care and their experience with medical providers; and (4) their perceptions of risk of daughters’ health.