TY - JOUR

T1 - Haunted futures

T2 - The stigma of being a mother living apart from her child(ren) as a result of state-ordered court removal

AU - Morriss, Lisa

N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, The Sociological Review, 66 (4), 2018, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the The Sociological Review page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sor on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

PY - 2018/7/1

Y1 - 2018/7/1

N2 - The notion of ‘haunted futures’ can provoke new understandings of the experiences of birth mothers living apart from their children as a result of state-ordered court removal. As ‘abject figures’, the mothers are silenced through the stigma and shame of being judged to be a deeply flawed mother, the justifiable fear of future children being removed, and court-ordered reporting restrictions. In this article, the author depicts how these mothers exist in a state of haunted motherhood: they are paralysed in anticipation of an imagined future of reunification with their children. The mothers are painfully aware that any future pregnancy will also be subject to child protection procedures; thus even their future motherhood continues to be stigmatised by the past. However, while the ghosts of removed children signify a traumatic loss, they also simultaneously represent hope and future possibilities of transformation through re-narrativisation. The creation of spaces for the mothers to speak about their experiences can foster a ‘maternal commons’. This ending of enforced silencing can be a political act, countering the stigma caused by pathologising individual mothers and making visible how structural inequalities and governmental policies impact on the lives of the most vulnerable families in the UK.

AB - The notion of ‘haunted futures’ can provoke new understandings of the experiences of birth mothers living apart from their children as a result of state-ordered court removal. As ‘abject figures’, the mothers are silenced through the stigma and shame of being judged to be a deeply flawed mother, the justifiable fear of future children being removed, and court-ordered reporting restrictions. In this article, the author depicts how these mothers exist in a state of haunted motherhood: they are paralysed in anticipation of an imagined future of reunification with their children. The mothers are painfully aware that any future pregnancy will also be subject to child protection procedures; thus even their future motherhood continues to be stigmatised by the past. However, while the ghosts of removed children signify a traumatic loss, they also simultaneously represent hope and future possibilities of transformation through re-narrativisation. The creation of spaces for the mothers to speak about their experiences can foster a ‘maternal commons’. This ending of enforced silencing can be a political act, countering the stigma caused by pathologising individual mothers and making visible how structural inequalities and governmental policies impact on the lives of the most vulnerable families in the UK.

KW - Child protection

KW - Hauntology

KW - Motherhood

KW - Social futures

KW - Stigma

U2 - 10.1177/0038026118777448

DO - 10.1177/0038026118777448

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85055645410

VL - 66

SP - 816

EP - 831

JO - Sociological Review

JF - Sociological Review

SN - 0038-0261

IS - 4

ER -