Motherhood experience of mothers in Turkey: A qualitative study of motherhood identity

This study aimed to examine how first-time mothers construct their maternal identities and how they restructure their relationships with their own mothers during this process. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study conducted semi-structured interviews with six mothers whose babies ranged in age from 1.5 to 8 months. The findings suggest that the transition to motherhood is not a passive process of adaptation, but rather a dynamic psychological transformation in which women integrate their past relational and individual self-representations into their new (maternal) identities. The study revealed that the experience of motherhood encompasses both feelings of self-sacrifice and love, as well as challenging emotions such as inadequacy and burnout. Eight main themes and ten subthemes were identified through the analyses. The main themes are as follows: 1) Motherhood as Something That Can Be Constructed, 2) Supreme Power of Motherhood, 3) Not Being Enough with Giving, 4) The Transformation in a New Mother's Relationship with Her Own Mother, 5) The Caregiving Needs of Mothers Who Begin Caregiving, 6) Who Am I Now?: Mother Identity, 7) Baby as the Organizer for the Mother Identity, and 8) A Legacy from Mother to Baby: Happiness. The findings demonstrate that motherhood has not only biological, but also psychological and relational dimensions. Mothers were observed to reinterpret their own experiences of motherhood within their relationships with their children, using their own mothers as a reference point. This research highlights that maternal identity is both a cultural and relational construction process, as well as an individual one. The findings are discussed in light of the existing literature, and the study's practical implications and limitations are addressed.