Motherhood experience for prisoners

Abstract

The study aimed to understand the motherhood experience for prisoners. This is an exploratory-descriptive qualitative study conducted with 17 prisoner women in the Penitentiary System of Paraíba State, during the period of July to December of 2012. A sociodemographic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. Data were organized and categorized following content analysis, generating three categories: separation suffering; comfort during anguish; family fragmentation. Results pointed out that motherhood experience in the prison is permeated by suffering and limitations. However, the presence of their child creates comfort during anguish and minimize difficulties in prison, although temporarily.  It is necessary to create inter sectoral actions to favor the mother-child relationship in the prison context.