Our clinical experience with pregnant women and mothers led us to the possibility that part of the maternal suffering were related to the lack or insufficiency of familiar and social support. Intrigued by the conception of motherhood in our society today, we proposed to investigate the collective imaginary of obstetric nurses about infant care, due to its function of modulating social and professional relationships. We requested 14 nurses to complete a fictional maternal narrative, specially elaborated for this study, resulting in an interactive narrative. The psychoanalytic consideration of the stories reveals a profound dichotomy between the maternal ideal and the concrete experience of motherhood. Social produced images such as idealization of mother as well as the fascination by the newborn baby keep those professionals away from the integration of their own ambivalent feelings toward motherhood, and contrast with the sensitive and ethical care of the mother-infant relation.
narratives; motherhood; collective imaginary; psychoanalysis; nursing