Becoming a birth mother of a child with fetal alcohol syndrome

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dc.contributor.advisorHughson, E. Anne
dc.contributor.advisorTapp, Dianne
dc.contributor.authorBadry, Dorothy Eleanor
dc.date.accessioned2017-12-18T21:35:07Z
dc.date.available2017-12-18T21:35:07Z
dc.date.issued2008
dc.descriptionBibliography: p. 222-246en
dc.description.abstractThe term and the meanings associated with 'Fetal Alcohol Syndrome' (FAS) originates from, and to a large extent has become institutionally colonized by, a positivistic-science dominated bio-medical model. This dissertation houses a qualitative inquiry into the lived experience effects and affects of what it means to become and be a birth mother of a child diagnosed with FAS. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, in contemporary Western society, has become overtly represented as a moralized disability. As such, the dissertation locates - historically, culturally, socially, politically, and medically - the evolution of a prevailing discourse, grounded in the bio-medical definition of FAS, that suggests if only women refrain, by choice, from alcohol use during pregnancy, then FAS will cease to exist. Discourse on prevention suggests if pregnant women do not refrain from alcohol, then these mothers-to-be must be held responsible - ethically, socially, morally, medically, politically, etc. - for any alcohol-related difficulties the child experiences. Although there are 'takes' and 'solutions' on what to do about FAS in medical or political or cultural environments, there are very few studies that offer any in-depth insights or understandings of the lives of birth mothers who, indeed, give birth to a child diagnosed with FAS. Therefore, the purpose of the research advanced in this dissertation is to develop deeper understandings of the lived experiences of birth mothers of children diagnosed with FAS. To accomplish this inquiry, a hermeneutic phenomenology methodology was employed to provide a thick descriptive and significantly interpretive frame by which birth mothers with children diagnosed with FAS could be engaged with in meaningful, non-threatening conversations about their life experiences. This novel approach resulted in conversational - interview data, hermeneutically cared for, showing the lives of eight (8) women between the ages of twenty-five (25) and sixty (60) all of whom had given birth to one or more children medically diagnosed with FAS. Thus, this study sought to honour the often unheard voices its participant women whose lives were significantly fraught with poverty, trauma, abuse, violence, and alcoholism.
dc.format.extentix, 284 leaves ; 30 cm.en
dc.identifier.citationBadry, D. E. (2008). Becoming a birth mother of a child with fetal alcohol syndrome (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/1801en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/1801
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/102802
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.publisher.placeCalgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.titleBecoming a birth mother of a child with fetal alcohol syndrome
dc.typedoctoral thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineEducational Research
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgary
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
ucalgary.thesis.accessionTheses Collection 58.002:Box 1769 520708932
ucalgary.thesis.notesUARCen
ucalgary.thesis.uarcreleaseyen
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