DEVELOPING MOTHERING NARRATIVES IN CHILD PROTECTION PRACTICE

Abstract

This paper develops the concept of a ‘mothering narrative’ as a means of better supporting mothers involved with child protection. Our paper begins with a brief review of the well‐established dilemmas facing social work practitioners in the arena of child protection. We then turn our attention to feminist psychoanalytic understandings of maternal subjectivity and ambivalence in order to establish the complexities of mothering in the context of multiple oppressions. Against this backdrop, we introduce the need to hear a woman's subjective account of her mothering that we refer to as a mothering narrative and illustrate this approach in relation to a case scenario. The obstacles inherent in engaging in mothering narratives in a statutory practice are also addressed.

Keywords:

• child protection
• mothering
• narrative
• maternal ambivalence
• clinical practice