- Title
- Motherhood narratives by women who access support services from an Non-Governmental Organisation in East London
- Creator
- Du Preez, Jaydene
- Subject
- Motherhood--South Africa Motherhood--Psychological aspects
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- Counselling Psychology
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/16842
- Identifier
- vital:40778
- Description
- Motherhood comes with little guidance or direction and the experience itself is often one that is saturated with mixed feelings and realities. Yet the ideologies and narratives that exist about the experience of motherhood often point to the idea that motherhood is a natural, easy and all-fulfilling position for a woman to have. Such contradictions between the thoughts and ideas about motherhood versus actual experiences of motherhood have resulted in a great deal of discomfort and difficulty for women. This is possibly as a result of the way in which motherhood has been studied in the past. But feminist, sociological and social psychological perspectives have sought to research the experiences of motherhood differently and in recent years through a growing interest in women-centred psychological research, there has been a shift in focus to the actual experiences of women as mothers. This research aims to be a continuing and contributing study of the experiences of mothers. Six mothers were interviewed through a semi-structured interviewing process. A narrative form of inquiry was used to facilitate the telling of the mothers’ stories. The aim of the research was to discover the experiences of motherhood by the mothers who made use of the services at a chosen NGO in East London. The findings suggest that the mothers experienced a number of contradictions between the dominant narratives of motherhood and their actual experiences. What also became evident was that many, if not all the mothers, were not as affected or concerned about these contradictions as mothers in other studies have been. It was thought that this was either a result of the personal characteristics of the mothers – their race, class and socioeconomic status (as suggested in other studies) or that the NGO itself was acting as a protective factor, allowing the mothers to fulfil their ideas about good mothering, thus contributing to their ideas and views of themselves, as mothers.
- Format
- 119 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Social Science and Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | JAYDENE DU PREEZ (MINI DISSERTATION).pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |