Mães e filhos atrás das grades: um estudo sobre as estratégias adoptadas pelas mães reclusas para o exercício da maternidade no Estabelecimento Penitenciário Especial para Mulheres de Maputo

Abstract

Motherhood in prison has received increasing attention from academics, with the scientific research around the specificities of this problem to experience a substantial development. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how women they experience motherhood in a context as specific as the interface between prison. Along these lines, the present investigation aimed to analyze the daily lives of mothers and children and motherhood experiences of women prisoners. To achieve this objective, a qualitative study was carried out, which involved direct observation on site, of the daily routines and semi-structured interviews were carried out with 06 incarcerated mothers. These results are discussed in the light of empirical literature in the context of motherhood in prison and with based on Schutz's (1979) phenomenological theory, valuing the experiences of the interviewees, as well as the interpretation they have about these same experiences. The obtained results reveal that, within the penitentiary establishment, the exercise of motherhood continues with concern for the well-being and sustenance of their children, but now combined with feelings of guilt, shame and sadness for being imprisoned. In this way, the experience of being a mother in prison context involves a diversity of feelings and cognitions, some negative, such as such as the perception of difficulties, frustration and regret, and other positives, such as personal protection/feeling of capacity to develop the role of mother in the prison establishment. It was concluded that the exercise of motherhood occurs through dialectical encounter between the objective dimensions of the prison and the subjective dimensions of prisoner mothers, which means that, as they follow the internal rules for serving the sentence, they can materialize the care they would give their children if they were out of prison, constructing themselves as inmate mothers