Mothered, Mothering & Motherizing in Illness Narratives: What Women Cancer Survivors in Southern Central Appalachia Reveal About Mothering-Disruption
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Informed by a mothering-disruption framework, our study examines the illness narratives of women cancer survivors living in Southern Central Appalachia. We collected the stories of twenty-nine women cancer survivors from northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia using a multi-phasic qualitative design. Phase I consisted of women cancer survivors participating in a day-long story circle (n=26). Phase II consisted of women cancer survivors who were unable to attend the story circle ; this sample sub-set participated in in-depth interviews (n=3) designed to capture their illness narratives. Participants' illness narratives revealed the presence of: (1) mothering-disruption whereby cancer adversely impacted the mothering role ; and (2) mothering-connection , whereby the cancer experience motivatedmother-survivors. Participants' illness narratives reflected thatthe role of mother was the preeminent role for mother-survivor and whenever there was oppositional tension between the roles of mother and survivor , the women-survivors seemed to linguistically relocate away from the survivor role and toward the mothering role. As a result , women-survivors seemingly rejected medicalization of their identities by emphasizing their mothering responsibilities , something we term motherizing.
Language: English
Topic: Cancer survivorship and care
Subfield: Oncology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2803686873