As social pedagogues, in our work we repeatedly encounter individuals and groups of individuals in vulnerable life situations. One of these is the transition to motherhood for women. However, it is shrouded in veils of self-evidentness and privacy. Society usually directs its focus only in the field of pathological phenomena of motherhood, such as. postpartum depression or postpartum anxiety. The everyday life of mothers has only recently begun to be discussed in Slovenia.
In my master’s thesis I present an important life transition from a woman to a mother and to investigate protective factors and risk factors within the transition. I present the newer concept of ‘matrescence’, which describes the complexity of psychological, social and physical changes experianced by women during the postpartum period. I also suggest using the newer term ‘newborn mother’, which is more consistent with the actual situation of woman in the first year of motherhood. In the theoretical part, I describe motherhood as an object of research, important points in the development of a mother’s identity, such as conceptions of motherhood, pregnancy, childbirth, life after childbirth and the complexity of changes of matrescence. I also present protective factors and risk factors as described by existing researchers of matrescence. Empirical part presents qualitative research conducted in two focus groups. The sample consists of seven mothers, who have at least one live child, and are at least 1 year and no more than 7 years away from giving birth. From their answers I formed information about when they first felt that they had become mothers; with what ideas about it they entered motherhood; how they experienced their postpartum period. Above all, I was interested in what supported them in this transition and what they perceived as obstacles.
The purpose of the master’s thesis is to focus on understanding of the life transition of matrescence and therby contribute to further research of motherhood and to develop effective support for newborn mothers.
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