The meaning of motherhood: perception of mothers living with HIV in Southern Thailand

Introduction: Women should have their rights to become mothers regardless of their health conditions. The literature suggests that HIV-positive mothers want to become a mother but encounter many difficulties. However, little is known about the meaning of motherhood among southern Thai women living with HIV. This paper explores the perception of motherhood among these mothers. Methods: Semi-structured in-depth interviewing and drawing methods were combined to collect data from 30 HIV-positive mothers. Thematic method was employed to analyse the data. Results: Three themes were constructed from data analysis: 1) meaning of motherhood and desire to have children, 2) what makes women to be more confidence to have more children, and 3) the importance of children: A social capital value. Motherhood was perceived as an important role in producing children for the future of society and they desired to have children because becoming a mother signified their womanhood. Having a child could fulfill their married life as the child would nourish their relationship as a couple and provide social support for them. They were confident that their children would have high chance of survival rate because of the advanced modern medical care they had access to. Mothers strictly followed the advice and kept appointments to help reduce the chance of HIV transmission to babies. Conclusion: Children were seen as social capital to HIV-positive mothers and thus had a special meaning to them. However, the desire and the rights to become a mother among Thai HIV-positive mothers were common and deserved greater attention.