Daughters' narratives of mothers' life threatening illness

Bonia, Kimberly Adrienne (2007) Daughters' narratives of mothers' life threatening illness. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This qualitative study investigates the narratives of six women from an urban area of Newfoundland whose mothers have life threatening illnesses. Using individual and focus group interviews, the purpose of the study is to explore the impact of mothers' illness on the mother-daughter relationship. Interviews were audio taped, transcribed, and analyzed using Mauthner and Doucet's (1998) voice-centred relational analysis. The women's narratives reveal that their relationship with their mothers during the illness is influenced by their relationship before the illness. Feelings of needing to provide support, understanding, and care for their mothers as well as the impact on the daughter's relationships with other family members are discussed. The results indicate that the daughters are concerned with issues of caregiving as it relates to issues of gender, pressures, homecare, and access to services and policies. I also found that although the women in my study indicated that they are familiar with the symptoms of their mother's illness and would be able to detect symptoms in themselves, they are not overly concerned with developing the illness themselves. This study provides a unique view of the impact of illness on the mother-daughter relationship because it is reflexive in nature. I share my own experiences as a daughter of a mother with a life threatening illness. My study begins to fill the gap in literature on the impact of a mother's life threatening illness on the social and economic lives of daughters, the changing definition of life threatening illness, and the similar experiences of care giving across different types of illnesses. My research also demonstrates the need for gender-based analysis of health policies and benefit programs relating to the support given to caregivers.

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