Extended Motherhood in the Lived Experience of Disabled Veterans' Wives

Recognizing the variations of motherhood experience among women as key family actors, this study examines the lived experience of disabled veterans' wives from the perspective of social sciences. The main questions are: ‘Basically what is the experience of disabled veterans' wives in taking on maternal role, what experience do these actors have in their daily lives, and what are the consequences of taking on motherhood and nursing roles at the same time in family life? The study has been conducted in a qualitative manner and on the basis of narrative research, and during the research, 30 wives of disable veterans living in Tehran were interviewed. The average age of the interviewees was 50 years, the average years of their living with a disabled veteran was 27 years and the average number of their children was 2.2. The results of coding the interviews show that role pressure and motherhood-nursing role conflict have had many consequences in the family life of disabled veterans' wives. Of course, women's experiences varied depending on their husbands’ type of disability, families’ financial resources, and children’s circumstances; however, the consequences of fathers’ disability on children and mothers’ trying to mediate between fathers and children is one of the main challenges for disabled veterans' wives. Suspension of maternal role, generation gap between fathers and children, economic dissatisfaction and social stigma are part of the lived experience of disabled veterans' wives, which increasingly imposes severe pressures and tensions on them. Overall, loneliness, worry and role pressure make the extended motherhood into the central theme of the disabled veterans' wives' lived experience in playing their maternal role.