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Life course theory as a framework to examine becoming a mother of a medically fragile preterm infant
Author(s) -
Black Beth Perry,
HolditchDavis Diane,
Miles Margaret S.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
research in nursing and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1098-240X
pISSN - 0160-6891
DOI - 10.1002/nur.20298
Subject(s) - liminality , homecoming , life course approach , developmental psychology , narrative , psychology , medicine , pediatrics , sociology , history , anthropology , linguistics , philosophy , art history
Life course theory, a sociological framework, was used to analyze the phenomenon of becoming a mother, with longitudinal narrative data from 34 women who gave birth prematurely after a high‐risk pregnancy, and whose infant became medically fragile. Women faced challenges of mistimed birth and mothering a technologically dependent infant. Before social ties were established, legal and biological ties required mothers to make critical decisions about their infants. Liminality characterized mothers' early involvement with their infants. The mothers worked to know, love, and establish deeper attachments to this baby. The infant's homecoming was a key turning point; it decreased liminality of early mothering, increased mothers' control of infants' care, and gave them time and place to know their infants more intimately. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 32:38–49, 2009