The good enough mother under social vulnerability conditions

Abstract

Abstract The present qualitative study aims to understand the affective and emotional attitudes that support the maternal experience in precarious conditions by articulating the maternal ideals of socially vulnerable women through the Winnicottian concept of the good enough mother. We used a procedure called Interactive Narrative to facilitate a less defensive and more ludic approach to the studied theme and invited women sheltered in an institution for pregnant and puerperal women to complete a story that had been written by the researcher. In the second stage, we formed a discussion group to gain insight into participants' conceptions of motherhood. The material produced was analyzed as a collective production so that we could identify underlying affective and emotional aspects of the group's imaginative elaborations about motherhood in precarious conditions. Feelings of helplessness, abandonment and loneliness were as present in the narrative productions as the idea that having a child creates opportunities for the development of maternal capabilities.