THE EFFECT OF TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF MOTHERHOOD

Abstract

This study aimed to understand how the trauma of witnessing a suicide and the trauma of abandonment affect women‟s maternal orientation. In-depth interviews were conducted with two mothers who were abandoned by their parents and three mothers who witnessed a suicide. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using discourse analysis. The results from this analysis showed that the trauma deeply affected the women‟s maternal orientation, and that they developed a counter-reaction to the people and events responsible for them experiencing the trauma and tended to protect their children against these kinds of situations. In addition, the social actors who played a healing role in their trauma served as role models for the women. It was also observed that generally the women adopted the sociallyconstructed ideal form of motherhood.