Professional or authentic motherhood? Negotiations on the identity of the birth mother in the context of foster care

Ylva Spånberger Weitz,Marie Karlsson

doi:10.1177/1473325020912815

Ylva Spånberger Weitz, Marie Karlsson

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https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325020912815

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Abstract

This article explores birth parents’ negotiations on the identity of the birth mother in three narratives about shared parenthood in foster care. The article draws on data from an interview study exploring the views of 16 birth parents on their experiences of foster care and non-resident parenthood. Through a position analysis, the authors show how the identity of the birth mother is negotiated in light of the moral discourse on intensive mothering. In these stories, birth mothers are positioned as authentic mothers holding a unique, emotional and life-long bond with their children. In contrast, foster mothers are positioned as professional mothers carrying out the formal activities of everyday care. Birth parents re-negotiate the moral discourse on intensive mothering by downplaying the importance of everyday care. The article thus adds to our knowledge on how non-resident mothers find different ways of constructing a sense of mothering, when they are not able to take part in the everyday care of their children. An understanding of such processes is important for social work practice to handle the challenges that may occur in relationships between foster parents and birth parents and thereby to support a more collaborative approach of shared parenthood.

Highlights

This article explores birth parents’ negotiations on the identity of the birth mother in three narratives about shared parenthood in foster care
The narrative performance of the birth mothers can be understood as a form of “extensive discursive labour” (Throsby, 2002), a term previously used to describe the narrative work of nonresident mothers, who through the telling of their stories, find different ways to defend themselves against a “bad mother label” and thereby defy society’s negative stereotypes of non-resident motherhood (Kielty, 2008b)
The identities of the birth mother that emerge through the narrative analysis all relate to the moral discourse of intensive mothering, but in different ways

Summary

Introduction

This article explores birth parents’ negotiations on the identity of the birth mother in three narratives about shared parenthood in foster care. The article adds to our knowledge on how non-resident mothers find different ways of constructing a sense of mothering, when they are not able to take part in the everyday care of their children An understanding of such processes is important for social work practice to handle the Qualitative Social Work 20(3). In Sweden, social services are required by law to actively promote a regular and continuous relationship between children and their birth parents during a child’s placement in foster care (Socialstyrelsen, 2009). The few studies that exist show that birth parents often feel powerless and inferior in relation to foster parents, which may have a negative

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