Maternidade e volta ao trabalho: a autopercepção da mãe sobre a construção do vínculo

Abstract

Attachment is on the evolutionary basis of the human species, whose main function is to ensure the baby’s survival and healthy development. From the bond between mother and child, sensitive and emotional exchanges will establish an efficient and intimate relationship that fosters regulation and well-being for the dyad. Evolutionarily, mother and baby rely on a repertoire of behavior and affective traits that enable both to adapt to the new environment and seek for solutions. Every culture influences the attachment style, the maternal role and the family organization. Currently, mothers are no longer exclusive to their children, as they want to work outside their home, changing the family organization and fathers are called on to get more involved in the children’s care. Nevertheless, many mothers, who work outside their homes, keep a ‘good mother’ imagery: the one that gives herself up in order to raise and take care her children. Another factor, that it is hard to conciliate maternity and work as both demand a big investment of time and dedication. When a mother goes back to work, she needs to break the full-time daily bond, even prematurely, for the long hours away from home. The premature breakup is opposed to a bond that is still very interdependent. The separation creates suffering that may negatively influence the mother-baby bond. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the self-perception of professional mothers about building the bond with their children, considering the dyad separation and the return to work in a pandemic scenario that has changed the working model. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Ten professional mothers on maternity leave, living in Rio de Janeiro, were interviewed following a script and three scales were used (Subjective well-being, Social support, Scale created for the research). The interviews were transcribed, and Content Analysis was employed. From the scales, scores were generated and analyzed for the purpose of comparisons and correlations between the results, using Wilcoxon and Spearman statistical tests. In general, mothers who had more flexibility at work, due to the pandemic (working from home), were able to deal better with the separation from the baby in their return to work, lessening the suffering, as there was the favorable factor of working from home (or being away for just a few hours) and having a bigger support from the husband, who was also working from home. Significant factors for them to perceive that the bond remains stable and healthy. The mother who had a full-time job (even working from home), showed a high level of suffering in the face of the foreshadowing of separation with the return to work, echoing as a threat to her bond with the child, in the fear of losing the child’s love.