There has been little research into the well-being of mothers after 12 months post-partum, despite researchers finding that depressive symptoms are more prevalent at 4 years post-partum than at any other time preceding this. The literature suggests that a woman’s view of the mother role impacts on her well-being in the early years of parenting. This qualitative research study investigated the experiences of mothers of preschool-aged children in Melbourne, Australia, and how they incorporated the role of mother into their self. Eight semi-structured interviews were completed, and interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to explore the data. The data revealed four subthemes relating to the emergence of the maternal self: becoming a mother as a journey of self-discovery, the biological imperatives of becoming a mother, remothering and the continued challenges of the emerging mother role. Although the experiences of mothering are as diverse as women themselves, even in the mostly homogenous sample, as in this study, several themes were present that both support and diverge from the existing literature.

中文翻译：

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学龄前的自我母亲：解释性现象学分析

尽管研究人员发现产后 4 年的抑郁症状比之前的任何时候都更普遍，但很少有关于母亲在产后 12 个月后的健康状况的研究。文献表明，女性对母亲角色的看法会影响她在育儿初期的幸福感。这项定性研究调查了澳大利亚墨尔本学龄前儿童母亲的经历，以及她们如何将母亲的角色融入自己。完成了八次半结构化访谈，并使用解释性现象学分析来探索数据。数据揭示了与母性自我的出现有关的四个子主题：成为母亲是自我发现的旅程，成为母亲的生物学要求，育儿和新兴母亲角色的持续挑战。尽管做母亲的经历与女性本身一样多样化，即​​使在大多数同质的样本中，如本研究所示，也存在几个既支持现有文献又不同于现有文献的主题。