Mothering Rodney in 1971: An Autoethnography of the Life and Death of My Baby Born With Severe Congenital Heart Defects

Title
Mothering Rodney in 1971: An Autoethnography of the Life and Death of My Baby Born With Severe Congenital Heart Defects
Publication Date
2018-04
Author(s)
Middlewood, Sue
Luxford, Yoni
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3313-502X
Email: yluxford@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:yluxford
Crawford, Frances
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Sage Publications, Inc
Place of publication
United States of America
DOI
10.1177/1077800417704463
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/60500
Abstract

Rodney lived for 14 weeks in 1971. He was my second child. My other two children died of unrelated causes in 1983 and 2005. This autoethnographical account explores my experience of mothering a baby with severe congenital heart defects in the Australian culture of the 1970s. Looking back, I gain an understanding of how my still painful experience was shaped by the times. Silenced by the social and cultural practices of the day, mothering and losing Rodney was a bewildering and painful journey. Writing as method allows me to find my voice, by exploring the darkest part of my life and reconnecting with my mother self and mother-love for Rodney.

Link
Citation
Qualitative Inquiry, 24(4), p. 281-292
ISSN
1552-7565
1077-8004
Start page
281
End page
292

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