Maternity and Social Suffering during Covid-19 pandemic: Study of Mommy Blogs

Abstract

In our society, certain collective imaginaries socially circulate, according to which the biological mother would be the best caregiver of their children. Such beliefs have created problems, considering that a large number of mothers, who live together or who are the only adult in the household, are currently inserted in the labor market. The daily difficulties, which generate socially determined emotional sufferings, that these mothers face are amplified, due to isolation measures aimed at dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, this study, which aims to investigate the experience of mothers during the period of social isolation, is justified. Methodologically, this research is articulated as a qualitative study using the psychoanalytic method, which used, as material, posts from blogs through which three mothers discuss the issue under study. As a result, the psychoanalytical consideration of the material allowed the enunciation of two interpretative results, understood as fields of affective-emotional meaning, “Doing everything and a bit more” and “My son, my happiness”. When seeking to deepen the interpretative results with Winnicottian contributions, which articulate the human capacities of creativity and care, it can be considered that maternal experiences, lived as social suffering, can be mitigated if childcare organization, known as motherhood, can be partially replaced by practices that involve the engaged participation of other adults, who belong to extended family, and community networks.