Haunted futures: The stigma of being a mother living apart from her child(ren) as a result of state-ordered court removal

Abstract

The notion of 'haunted futures' (Ferreday & Kuntsman, 2011) can provoke new understandings of the experiences of birth mothers living apart from their children as a result of state-ordered court removal. As 'abject figures' (Tyler, 2013), the mothers are silenced through the stigma and shame of being judged to be a deeply flawed mother, the justifiable fear of future children being removed, and court-ordered reporting restrictions. In this paper, I depict how these mothers exist in a state of haunted motherhood: they are paralysed in anticipation of an imagined future of reunification with their children. The mothers are painfully aware that any future pregnancy will also be subject to child protection procedures; thus even their future motherhood continues to be stigmatised by the past. However, while the ghosts of removed children signify a traumatic loss, they also simultaneously represent hope and future possibilities of transformation through re-narrativization (Gordon, 2011). The creation of spaces for the mothers to speak about their experiences can foster a 'maternal commons'. This ending of enforced silencing can be a political act, countering the stigma caused by pathologising individual mothers and making visible how structural inequalities and governmental policies impact on the lives of the most vulnerable families in the UK.

Parenting under Adversity: Birth Parents’ Accounts of Inequality and Adoption

“…The impact of adoption on birth parents is established in literature, including feelings of grief, loss and shame (Charlton et al 1998;Memarnia et al 2015;Neil et al 2010;Smeeton and Boxall 2011;Morriss 2018).…”

On hope, loss, anger, and the spaces in between: Reflections on living with/in adoption and the role of the social worker

“…The area of adoption illustrates this most starkly. Practitioners have to make judgments about futures for children that are unknown and contested, and for each of these futures, there are other possible roads that are not taken (Morriss, 2018).…”

“…(Birth parent) Some of the adoptive parents' experiences echoed those of birth parents when requests for help were viewed through the prism of risk and they were constructed as "the problem" by social workers. In a similar manner to the mothers separated from their children through the care system cited by Morriss (2018), birth parents spoke to the Enquiry about feeling stigmatized and treated as "less than human," with the paucity of post-adoption support services reflecting their "undeserving" status.…”

“…The painful, traumatic, and long-lasting impacts of losing a child of the family to adoption were repeatedly stressed by birth families In a similar manner to the mothers separated from their children through the care system cited by Morriss (2018), birth parents spoke to the Enquiry about feeling stigmatized and treated as "less than human," with the paucity of post-adoption support services reflecting their "undeserving" status.…”

In this issue

“…It is also central to the work McMahon does for the organisation New Beginnings. 1 Another recommendation chimes with my own findings of the importance for the mothers to share their collective experiences in order to counter the stigma and shame that child removal brings (Morriss, 2018). This article by Broadhurst and Mason is a must read and for that reason we have made it free to access.…”