Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
2
Member of the Faculty of Social Studies, Institute for Cultural, Social and Civilization Studies of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology
3
Faculty member of university of Isfahan
Abstract
This study, conducted from a social work perspective, aims to understand and describe the lived experiences of pregnant mothers or mothers with infants and toddlers suffering from substance use disorder. A qualitative approach with a descriptive phenomenological method was employed. Twenty-five mothers with substance use disorder in Tehran were selected through purposive sampling and the snowball strategy. Data were collected via in-depth semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi's seven-step method. The findings were organized into four main themes: the transitioning socio-cultural configuration, intergenerational and structural contexts of substance use, support networks (emphasizing substance use slums), and the maternal lifeworld (including multi-layered social exclusion, separation from the child, the collapse of maternal identity, and self-rule morality). Most participants were migrants, residents of marginalized areas, had low cultural capital, and had experienced unwanted pregnancies. Friendship networks within substance use slums constituted their primary source of support, while access to formal support services was severely limited. Drawing on Goffman's stigma theory, the strengths-based perspective, the person-in-environment approach, the biopsychosocial approach, and the ecological approach, a conceptual model of the accumulative deprivation cycle was developed. From a social work standpoint, this study highlights the necessity of multi-level interventions based on harm reduction, empowerment, and a shift from blame-oriented to structural and context-sensitive approaches. Furthermore, the findings remind social workers that the experience of motherhood in the context of substance use disorder cannot be understood apart from the structures of poverty, violence, social exclusion, and punitive custody policies. Effective interventions require a fundamental revision of custody policies and the design of mother-and-child-friendly support programs.
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