Table 1 Summary of the literature (N = 27)
From: Disrupted mothering in Iranian mothers with breast cancer: a hybrid concept analysis
Authors, year | Country | Study design | Sample | Key findings related to the attributes of disrupted mothering |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Billhult and Segesten, 2003 [17] | Sweden | Phenomenology | 10 women with no recurrent breast cancer | Balancing between being needed and perhaps not existing Balancing between own demands: Being strong and surviving, and being a good parent Balancing between telling the truth and protecting the children Strategies used by mothers with breast cancer: Gaining strength and support, Turn into positive, and continuing everyday life |
Power, 2012 [9] | USA | Qualitative methodology | 27 women Australia or America | Revealed how illness impacted upon the women‘s maternal lives, mothering activities and treatment decisions Encompasses their experiences with health professionals, as well as the way being hospitalized affected mother’s interaction with children The Supporting Cast ‘makes explicit women‘s main sources of support, namely their partners, female friends and relatives and others Reviewing the Performance’s details the quality of mothering |
Vallido et al., 2010 [1] | Australia | Narrative synthesis | 13 papers | Mechanism of disruption; Reframing the mother role, Protecting the children, Experiencing guilt or shame, Problems with healthcare professionals and living to mother, mothering to live |
Semple and McCance, 2010 [18] | United kingdom | Systematic review | 13 papers | Being a good parent Telling the children Maintaining routine at home |
Wilson, 2007 [2] | Scotland | Narrative analysis | 12 Women | Need of to survive and to protect their children Represented a fundamental re-formulation of their identities as mothers Biographical disruption while paradoxically also containing elements of biographical reinforcement |
Tavares et al., 2018 [19] | Portugal | A mixed‐method systematic review | 21 papers | Decision‐making processes about sharing the diagnosis with their children Mother‐child relationship and parenting after mother's diagnosis |
Elmberger et al., 2005 [3] | Sweden | Grounded theory | 10 mothers | Redefining oneself as a mother’, Interrupted mothering Facing the life-threatening illness and children’s reactions Striving to be a good mother; attempting to deal with moral responsibility as mother |
Elmberger et al., 2008 [4] | Sweden | Qualitative secondary analysis | 9 mothers with breast cancer | Becoming exhausted Facing it Finding meaning Becoming aware of the need for information and support Looking to the future Becoming energized |
Elmberger et al., 2000 [20] | Sweden | Grounded theory | 9 women with breast cancer | The main theme was transforming the exhausting-to-energizing process in being a good parent in the face of cancer |
Campbell-Enns and Woodgate, 2013 [21] | Canada | Grounded theory | 8 mothers with cancer | The meaning that mothers made of decisions maintain the mother child bond The conditions of the mothers’ lives influenced the meaning mothers assigned to decisions Coping strategies to facilitate maintaining the mother child bond in times of distress |
Portis, 2008 [22] | U.S.A | Grounded theory | 7 mothers | coping styles and communication, denial, loss of role/sense of self, communication with children, balance, breast cancer in context biographical disruption, the importance of community support, and living with uncertainty |
Arida et al., 2019 [23] | U.S.A | Secondary analysis of focus groups | 9 women | Evolving self-identities from healthy mother to cancer patient to woman mothering with cancer How motherhood was impacted by symptoms, demands of treatment, and the need to gain acceptance of living with cancer |
Rashi et al., 2015 [24] | Canada | Qualitative, descriptive design | 5 mothers and 7 fathers with a first cancer diagnosis | a Parental self-activated strategies; maintaining child routines, selective disclosure, strength and positivity, adapting to illness-related physical changes, and connecting with others who are similar b Tangible social networks; that meet transportation, child care, meal care, and psych emotional support needs c Suggestions to enhance person- and family-centered care; information to benefit the children, coordination of appointments, optimizing timing for support services, and the need for more tangible support |
de Castro1 et al., 2018 [25] | Brazil | Exploratory qualitative design | 10 mothers | Being afraid of death/cancer recurrence and leaving their child orphan Changing the values/meaning of life after illness Changing the family routine/child routine Having conflict/defeat/ambivalent feelings Having difficulties to attend their children |
Mazzotti et al., 2012 [26] | Italian | Qualitative approach | 8 women | Handle disease as a temporary event Detachment from their children, in an attempt to protect them Sort or long term changes in the life of the mother and family members The behaviors examined, adopted to safeguard children’s wellbeing create or enhance dysfunctional and paradoxical communication strategies |
Kuswanto et al., 2018 [27] | Germany | Systematically review Meta-Analysis | 30 papers | Psychological impact of cancer on mothers Changes in maternal identity and role Relationship changes and concerns for their children Meaning-making in cancer |
Helseth and Ulfsæt, 2005 [28] | Norwegian | Exploratory design | 18 parents | Living in a state of emergency Cancer was consuming their energy, physically and emotionally Striving to be good parents Shift of Priorities and change of values that often brought family members closer together Facing with challenges of illness by making the best of it Putting the needs of the children in focus and trying to maintain normal family life protecting the children and make the illness situation as secure and normal |
Bekteshi and Kayser, 2013 [29] | U.S.A | Grounded theory | 29 mothers | Closer relationships with their daughters, emotions such as fear, anger, or guilt Mothers were able to work through these emotions with their daughters through four relational competencies: a anticipatory empathy sensitivity about the impact of cancer on each other; b authenticity full presence without fear of abandonment; c mutual empathy caring and emotional support; d mutual empowerment capacity to empower one another |
Baltisberger, 2015 [30] | U.S.A | Mixed methods | 31 women | Keeping life the same while weathering cancer treatments; learning, adapting, accepting support, growing and normalcy |
Öhlén and Holm, 2006 [31] | Sweden | Hermeneutic phenomenology | 9 women | Facing Transformative Life Situations Being unreal Seeking and finding rhythm in the family Inability to maintain the role of a women Being confronted with irresolvable dilemmas Meaning in sever suffering Trying to maintain ordinary life Ambivalence: desire to maintain used to be ordinary and to face Changes in life Affirming a yearning for and seeking something new Remaining in the new and widening the perspective on everyday life |
Bell and Ristovski-Slijepcevic, 2011 [32] | Canada | Ethnography | 6 women | Mets and children: the hierarchy of suffering The need to maintain a sense of normalcy ”cram parenting” and “making memories”: Temporal disturbance in women’s of mothering |
Walsh et al., 2005 [33] | U.S.A | Cross- sectional | 204 women with breast cancer | Mother’s relationships with her children Emotional distress Increased closeness Role shift |
Noorisanchooli et al., 2018 [34] | Iran | Qualitative method with conventional content analysis approach | 12 patients with breast cancer | Mutual supports, mutual sufferings, and ambivalent feelings Mutual involvement of the patient and family with the disease |
Kirsch et al., 2003 [35] | U.S.A | Inductive content analysis | 4 couples | To protect their children from being frightened and worried |
Rayson and Ruedy, 2001 [36] | Canada | Case study | A 32-Years-old woman | Resolving the conflict between two moral demands: being strong and surviving, and being a good parent |
Shrestha et al., 2019 [37] | Nepal | Walker and Avant’s method | 25 papers | The antecedences of maternal role; pregnancy, maternal identity, maternal behaviors, and adjustment to child-rearing, and bonding with the child The attributes; considered nurturing, protecting, caretaking, and managing household affairs The consequences; the awareness of neonatal status, balanced fulfillment of multiple roles, maternal role strain, and role conflict |
Shin et al., 2008 [38] | Korea | Rodgers’ method of evolutionary concept analysis | 54 papers | Attributes of maternal sensitivity; dynamic process involving maternal abilities, reciprocal give-and-take with the infant, contingency on the infant’s behavior, and quality of maternal behaviors |