South Africa is reported as one of the countries with a high burden of tuberculosis (TB). In response to the epidemic, the country’s national Department of Health attempted to improve access to health care and TB treatment with a variety of intervention, treatment and management programmes. Although these interventions are necessary for the macro project of lowering TB infections in South Africa, their focus tends to neglect the particular stories of how TB affects particular lives. In pursuit of such stories, this paper considers how two women, Andiswa and sis Thembi, in Khayelitsha, Western Cape, juggle motherhood and illness. Drawing on a body of literature that focuses on illness as a biographical disruption, good mothering and the impact of TB on poor families in South Africa, this paper explores how TB disrupts mothering. It looks at how these women manage their identities as mothers and their relationships when infected with the disrupting TB. I argue that despite the disruption, their lives show that TB produces moments of burdening and moments of unburdening.

据报道，南非是结核病高负担的国家之一。为应对这一流行病，该国国家卫生部试图通过各种干预，治疗和管理计划来改善获得卫生保健和结核病治疗的机会。尽管这些干预措施对于降低南非结核病感染的宏大项目是必要的，但它们的重点往往忽略了关于结核病如何影响特定生活的特定故事。为了追求这些故事，本文考虑了两个女人安迪斯瓦（Andiswa）和西斯（sis）位于西开普省Khayelitsha的Thembi玩弄母亲和生病。借鉴大量文献资料，这些文献关注疾病作为传记障碍，良好的母亲以及结核病对南非贫困家庭的影响，本文探讨了结核病如何破坏母亲。它着眼于这些妇女在感染破坏性结核病后如何处理自己的母亲身份以及他们的关系。我认为，尽管受到破坏，但他们的生活表明结核病会产生负担和减轻负担的时刻。