Får en kvinna ångra sitt moderskap? En kvalitativ studie om socialsekreterares uppfattningar av kvinnor som ångrar att de skaffat barn

Huss M. Is a woman aloud to regret her motherhood?. A qualitative study about social workers perception of women who regret having children. Degree project in social work 15 credits. Malmö University: Faculty of Health and Society, Department of Social Work, 2018.A common opinion is that having children is a choice you can’t regret. But what happens when women deviate from this norm and regret that they were having children? The purpose of this study was to investigate how social workers perceive women who regret that they were having children and how this perception affects their social work. The empirical material was collected by semi-structured interview questions in combination with the vignette method. Six social workers, which are working with children and families, were interviewed and then the material was processed by using coding and categorization. Eight categories were identified and analysed from a norm critical perspective, a psychological cultural perspective and Goffman’s theory about stigma. The study result showed that the social workers tended to explain the women’s feelings of regret as caused by reasons like postpartum depression, mental illness and attachment problems. The study results also showed that norms about motherhood influenced how the social workers viewed the topic. This was expressed in the discussions about how the children could be affected by the mothers’ feelings of regret. The discussions also gave an indication that the social workers had a different way of reasoning, depending on the gender of the parent who was feeling regret in these situations.Keywords: Motherhood, norms, regret, stigma, social work