From Mother to Caregiver

Mothering Children with Lifelong Care Needs Across the Life Course

Genevieve Currie, Kinga Pozniak

• Publisher: Demeter Press
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781772585476
• Subtopic: Feminism & Feminist Theory
• Index: Social Sciences

Mothers caring for children with complex health and social care needs are socially responsible for preserving and fostering the lives of their children and families, sometimes under extreme pressure and expectations. This work of caring for children is overwhelmingly the responsibility of mothers. The social expectation in most cultures is that mothers should care for their children regardless of the medical, social, economic, or physical circumstances. These experiences of mothering and care work, structured from women's daily lives, have been largely unknown, hidden, or silenced, and not considered as important knowledge. This book is an international collection written by mothers, about mothering and caregiving. The submissions straddle the continuum between personal accounts and research. The collection offers insight into how to support and build capacity for mothers' profound courage, creativity, persistence, and strengths in meeting these care responsibilities. These experiences provide insight into the need for equitable care arrangements and care models that support mothers caring for children with complex care needs.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Introduction
• Section I
• History and Theoretical Background on Mothering, Caregiving, and Carework
• 1. Mothering and Carework
• 2. From Seeker to Crusader: How Complex Care Motherhood Shifted My Identity
• Section II
• 3. Poetic Narratives of Mothers Who Have a Child Living with Rarity
• 4. Mothering Disabled Children
• 5. Homeschooling, Cancer, and Letting Go: A Parenting Journey
• Section III
• 6. Navigating the Intersections: The Complexities of Black Mother Caregivers of Division I Student-Athletes with Chronic Illnesses
• 7. When Carework and Paid Work Intersect: Challenges and Learnings of Lifelong Caregiving in Mothers’ Professional Trajectories
• Section IV
• 8. Siblings of Children with Medical Complexity
• 9. My Life as a Lifelong Sibling Caregiver: An Exploration of Choice and Complex Feelings
• Section V
• 10. “It Is What It Is”: Mothers Caring for Adult Children with an Intellectual and Developmental Disability in Rural Ontario during the COVID-19 Pandemic
• 11. Mothering in a Sandwich Generation
• Section VI
• 12. Children with Medical Complexity: An Integrated Village Approach to Support Mothers and Their Families
• 13. Raising Rural: Rethinking Raising and Caring for Children with Medical Complexity Living in Rural Communities
• Afterword
• Notes on Contributors