The perception of motherhood in mother who have children with Serebral Palsy

The purpose of this study is to understand mothers who have children with cerebral palsy and how they experience motherhood. In accordance with this purpose I try to understand how it feels to have a child with cerebral palsy, how mothers experience this disability, through the effects of Turkish cultural , which adaptation and coping skills they put to use. Besides, I try to look into the quality of social work applications that are given to mothers and her children with cerebral palsy in Turkey in consideration of narrations of mothers who have participated in this research. This research is done by using in-depth review technique on 15 volunteered mothers that have children with cerebral palsy ages varying from 15 to 21 and are members of Association of Children With Cerebral Palsy. We adopt purposeful sampling method to do this research that is done by qualitative research pattern. Capta from these interviews are analyzed by ATLAS.ti qualitative data analysis program using template analysis method, a sub-type of thematic analysis. The results of this research shows us that mothers of children with cerebral palsy experience this period under intense stress, their most important coping skill with this disease is their faith and a great majority of them needs psychological support professionally. It is also understood that these mothers are abstracted from society and lost their social functionality because of having handicapped children besides being put upon by social gender role. Social work applications given for mothers that have children with cerebral palsy disease are inadequate to meeting the requirements and routinised away from holistic view. In the light of findings obtained from this research; suggestions are given on social policies that shapes social work applications and and are grounded on corroboration of disability rights and mothers with disabled children. Keywords Cerebral Palsy, motherhood experience, maternal perception, maternity in terms of gender roles, social works