Bedoya M/ Enfermería Investiga Vol. 8 No. 4 2024 (December - January)

POSTPONED MATERNITY: VOICES OF WOMEN WHO DECIDE TO ABORT IN ECUADOR

Gina Rosa Alonso Muñiz¹,2 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0041-2956, Beatriz Elena Arias López3 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3326-0402

¹Professor at the Southern State University of Manabí. Jipijapa, Ecuador.

²Coordinator of the Nursing Career at the Southern State University of Manabí Jipijapa, Ecuador

3Professor at the University of Antioquia. Medellin Colombia.

Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: July 20, 2023

Accepted: September 29, 2023

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Voluntary abortion is a topic in constant debate

because it invades the public and parliamentary spheres,

bringing with it discussions that go towards the political and

ethical aspects. For Ecuador, it becomes relevant due to the

restrictions derived from the norms that regulate the procedure.

In this sense, it is important to make motherhood visible from the

perspective of the women who decided to terminate the

pregnancy, in a social context that shows contrary edges to what

it has been culturally believed to be a mother. Objective:

Understand the way motherhood is understood from the

trajectories of women who have decided to abort in Ecuador.

Methods: Narrative biographical study in which 19 women of

legal age, who decided to abort at some point in their lives,

participated. The sample was made up of 19 women between 18

and 62 years old. The information was collected through in-depth

interviews, mostly virtually. Bertaux's proposal was used for data

treatment and analysis. Endorsement was obtained from the

Ethics Committee. Results: Being and the duty to be mothers

confronts women with tensions between a positive and

satisfactory motherhood and another as a dispossession of

themselves. Trends that are not necessarily exclusive emerge,

which take the form of sacrificial, omnipotent, burdensome,

imperfect and/or bad motherhoods. Conclusions: The meaning

that motherhood has for women is fundamental in their decision

to abort, to the extent that its social and cultural mandates

become additional pressure to sanction and criminalize their

decision to abort. This requires proposing a perspective of sexual

and reproductive health rights that allows nurses, and other

health actors, recognize these complexities and tensions to

assume their care task from a guarantee perspective, putting

women as the main focus.

Keywords: sexual and reproductive health, abortion, sexual and

reproductive rights, Nursing.

Corresponding author: Ph.D. Gina Rosa Alonso Muñiz. Email:gina.alonzo@unesum.edu.ec

Bedoya M/ Enfermería Investiga Vol. 8 No. 4 2024 (December - January)

INTRODUCTION

Sexual and reproductive health (SRH), like health in general, is

determined by various factors. Even though its correspondence

with the biological is obvious, the mediation of the social and

cultural context is essential (1-3). While biological bodies function

in certain ways, gender and the representations rooted in

patriarchal societies establish their own models of health,

science and behavior, with an impact on individual and collective

bodies (4). In this debate, women's rights have been

progressively recognized, without difficulty. The ideology of

femininity and the notions that it entails have permeated health

practices, as well as the process of health-illness-care-attention-

death (5), with latent threats and risks of violation of the

fundamental rights of women.

The attention regarding their SRH continues to be limited, with

poor quality, characterized by dependence on decisions of third

parties or institutions, and persistence of practices without

consent, based on logics of legitimized violence (6). The origin of

these systematic violations is found in the deep-rooted

representations and concepts around women, gender, sexuality

and their essential functions of gestating, giving birth,

breastfeeding, raising and revitalizing others in a personal, direct

and permanent way, in their daily survival and in death (7-9).

Within all these ideas, that of motherhood is covered with moral

judgments, whether religious, political or cultural. In some cases,

it is considered sacred and constant (10), but paradoxically

underestimated, as an instinctive response, which occurs

spontaneously and therefore has no value (8). The vision of “the

mother” is presented as a naturalized reflection of love,

unconditionality and, with it, the loss of autonomy of women (10),

conceptions that are inscribed in their bodies and lives, with

strong conservative and sexist aspects.

In this context, the exercise of women's fundamental rights may

be restricted, in particular sexual and reproductive rights, the

purpose of which is to guarantee that all people can live free of

discrimination, risks, threats, coercion and violence in relevant

decisions. So that they can enjoy a pleasurable, sovereign and

free sexual and reproductive life. This is reflected, among other

situations, in the norms and health practices provided by

professionals in the area, and ends up being expressed in the

setback in matters of SRH (11), where the autonomy of women

continues to be limited and widely debated.

Against this backdrop, abortion is one of the problems that

cannot be resolved. The criminalization and judicialization of

those who have performed abortions has increased in Ecuador.

The context of this research is pressured from various social

sectors to regulate the issue in line with international

organizations that point out violations of other associated rights,

such as health or intimacy (12).

Following these debates, this article aims to understand the way

motherhood is understood from the trajectories of women who

have decided to abort in Ecuador, that is, from the trajectories of

those women.

METHODS

Type of study. This work was situated in a feminist perspective,

a world view that recognizes women in society and confronts

systematic injustices based on gender (13). This philosophical

current promotes a social transformation in the contemporary

world, generating critical and reflective judgments capable of

changing realities (14), while calling into question the discourses,

dilemmas and problems that have not been answered. It aims to

create a science free of gender inequality, with a vision of

inclusion. Accordingly, the research is qualitative, it had a design

based on the narrative biographical approach (15) given the

relevance of understanding from the subjectivity of women the

phenomena that are intertwined with their SRH (16).

Place and Period. Ecuador, from March 2021 to March 2022

Selection criteria. Women of legal age who had decided to abort

at some point in their lives, who wanted to narrate their

experience freely and whose geographical area of residence was

Ecuador. Those with communication difficulties were excluded.

The approach to the participants was through contacts and social

networks, under the snowball strategy and through organizations

and activists that work for the defense of sexual and reproductive

rights, among them: Feministas Ec, Colectivo Zorras

Subversivas and the Blue Toad Community. A first contact was

established with the women to inform them about the objectives

of the research, informed consent and ethical safeguards, in

addition to completing a sociodemographic data sheet.

Sample. The sample was made up of 19 women between 18 and

62 years old, with an average of 32; residents of Quito, Jipijapa,

Portoviejo, Latacunga, Guayaquil and Atuntaqui. 47% were

university students, 35% were professionals from different

disciplines and 18% were housewives, which formed a sample

with significant access to education. Almost all declared their

ideological and practical adherence to the Catholic religion. The

sample was formed following the logic of convenience sampling

and achieving the formation of a homogeneous sample, with

minimal variation.

Bedoya M/ Enfermería Investiga Vol. 8 No. 4 2024 (December - January)

Data collection. In-depth interviews, with an average duration of

40 minutes and a frequency of three for each participant, which

were mostly carried out virtually through the Google Meet

platform, taking into account the conditions of the pandemic

specific to the period of development.

Data treatment and analysis. Bertaux's proposal (17) of the

“story of life” was accepted, which originates from everyday life,

arising from the dialogue between two people about a life event.

It starts with an intratextual descriptive approach, continuing with

an intertextual interpretive analysis. To do this, summaries

structured in matrices were used, which were then converted into

graphic representations or visual images of the identified themes.

Strategies such as comparison/contrast, pointing out patterns

and themes, triangulation and the search for negative cases,

were key in the process. This made possible to identify

metanarratives, such as the case of motherhood, whose results

and discussion are exposed below. No computer program was

used for the analysis process. On the contrary, manual data

processing was privileged.

Ethical aspects. Endorsement was obtained from the Ethics

Committee of the Faculty of Nursing of the University of Antioquia

according to Minutes CEI-FE 2020-21 of April 30, 2020 and from

the University San Francisco de Quito Minutes AVO-03-2021-

CEISH-USFQ. The ethical principles of the Declaration of

Helsinki corresponding to research with human beings were

followed (18). In the development of the research, pseudonyms

were used to protect the integrity and identity and maintain the

confidentiality of the participants.

RESULTS

From the generation of meta-narratives or collective narratives

resulting from the intertextual dialogue of the participants' stories,

it was possible to identify different maternal models, where the

being and the duty to be as mothers confront women with

permanent tensions between the idea of positive motherhood,

satisfactory, full of tenderness, with motherhood as a burden and

as the dispossession of themselves. In general terms, the

religious idea of motherhood stands out as a possibility of later

reward, a balm that allows sacrifice to be sustained, but also the

avoidance of guilt when faced with the decision to abort. Among

the participants' representations of motherhood, sacrificial

motherhood, omnipotent motherhood, motherhood as a burden,

perfect/imperfect motherhood and bad motherhood were

observed as trends present in the biographies, which are not

necessarily presented in an exclusive way but rather they overlap

at different times in their trajectories. This occurs depending on

the context and the transformations of the environment, whose

emphasis modulates decisions to interrupt or not their

pregnancies, which generates a varied spectrum to understand

women's decisions in relation to their sexual and reproductive

rights, as well as their diverse care trajectories.

Bedoya M/ Enfermería Investiga Vol. 8 No. 4 2024 (December - January)

Sacrificial motherhood

One of the phenomena that emerges most strongly in women's

stories is motherhood experienced and represented as a

sacrifice, as a constant putting sons and daughters over

themselves. Sacrifice marks motherhood as part of a

deterministic cultural and family legacy, exacerbated by

problematic emotional relationships, precarious economic

contexts and/or partners absent in the work of parenting. To be

a mother is to be burdened, to stop fulfilling what is planned in

order to give priority to the care of others, an apparently

undifferentiated experience in women of different ages and

positions whose sacrificial version of motherhood runs through

their biographies, a turning point which derives hard work, duty

and latent guilt from not being able to do the right thing in

upbringing, care and education. Sacrificial motherhood leads

women to fulfill their destiny, with a path laid out historically and

culturally.

***

Viviana, a 22-year-old woman from an urban parish in Portoviejo,

currently a university student, lives with her husband and

daughters in a small apartment where they share with other

relatives on the same property. She remembers a family of very

religious origin, in which talking about sexuality was impossible.

She had her first daughter at 18 and the second at 19, then came

a third pregnancy, which she decided to terminate. “I said I'm

going to stop studying here, I'm not going to continue working

here, I'm going to stay here and I didn't want that either. When

my daughter was born, I took her to university for the first few

months until she was eight months old. My daughter

accompanied me to university. In the third pregnancy I said no,

I'm going to see what to do. I didn't tell my mother, I didn't tell my

partner, I didn't consult anyone, I made the decision for myself

because I was in a moment of desperation. I didn't want to have

another child, I'll be honest, I didn't want another child, I didn't

want to carry more responsibilities, I felt dazed, fatigued, tired

and I said no.

***

Soledad, a 51-year-old woman, originally from the Jipijapa

canton, province of Manabí, who cannot access a professional

education, had an abortion after experiencing motherhood at the

age of 23. She lived part of her life in her town with her foster

mother, but she decides to go to another city when her children

are in school, looking for work and ways to live. She has 3 adult

children and is already a grandmother: “I was practically a mother

and father, because my father helped me little, he gave me little.

I think motherhood is something beautiful, a very beautiful

experience that God gives us, we have to fight for our children,

because the father, when we need it most, is not there.

Omnipotent motherhood

As a consequence of the sacrifice, the compensation of

omnipotence appears, as proof of the self-worth as a mother.

Even though many of the participants stated that they did not feel

prepared for care and upbringing, this changes immediately

when they experience motherhood. Deciding to maintain a

pregnancy or interrupt it is crossed by this cultural mandate of

superpower, which many prefer to postpone, rather than

question. It is the uncertainty of being able to fulfill it that

modulates the decision, rather than a disruptive or controversial

position of the mandate. In this sense, motherhood supposes an

omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent being, whose bond is

unquestionable.

***

Jennifer, a college student in health sciences, comes from a

family consisting of her mother, her mother's husband, uncle,

cousin, and her school-age son. She does not preach any

religion and is in a relationship with a partner and with future

plans to start a family. For her, motherhood entails an enormous

responsibility, carried out with selflessness, but it also implies

giving everything for another person to whom she has given life

and care: “ Motherhood is very beautiful, knowing that you have

a being that was born from you, that you have to focus

Furthermore, thinking about him, putting him as a priority, is

something beautiful, very, very much; of telling me that he misses

me, out of sincere words, of arriving home and him hugging me

out of nowhere, kissing me, it's very nice, beautiful, of telling me

‘mommy, I miss you’, even though he's bothering me to make me

laugh. What would have happened if I had had my other baby? I

say that I did well, although it sounds cruel. I think I did well

Bedoya M/ Enfermería Investiga Vol. 8 No. 4 2024 (December - January)

because in the situation I am in right now I am not in a position

to have a baby, so things happen for a reason.

***

Laura is single, Catholic, comes from a nuclear family, has no

children, is an active participant in a feminist group and is a

university student: “I believe that to be a mother you have to be

super prepared, not only psychologically, but (...). Let's see, not

only physically (laughs), but also psychologically and

emotionally, because there are actually a lot of changes.”

Carolina has this same appreciation, who considers that

motherhood entails responsibilities, skills and sacrifices that are

unknown in advance and that are learned only through the

experience of being a mother: “I do want to have a child, it seems

like something super cool, something very hard too, but in the

midst of everything, of all those things, I think it is something

beautiful

Motherhood as a burden

The sacrifice of motherhood can turn into omnipotence, but it can

also turn toward burden. In the first case it constitutes an

evaluative compensation, while in the second it presupposes the

exacerbation of a situation of suffering, especially for those

women who experience upbringing and care without support

networks, or for others who question gendered social functioning

on these tasks of social reproduction. More than compensation,

women's decisions appear from this place of enunciation as

contempt for the mandate.

***

Mariana is a university student, from the rural parish of Calderón,

in the city of Portoviejo, single, has no children, Catholic,

economically independent, who identifies as a feminist. Despite

considering that motherhood is “something beautiful,” she

positively values the decision to abort: “Motherhood will be

desired or it will not, so motherhood is something beautiful and

in that short time I felt it was very rooted, ugh, but I feel like I

made the right decision. Because I don't think it was easy to

arrive with a little one by my side and me alone, helpless. Then

it wouldn't have been easy. I want motherhood after a few years,

like at 26 I would like to become a mother.

***

Crisley, a university student, single, financially dependent on her

parents, of Catholic religion and a nuclear family, without

children. Her economic circumstances make the possibility of

being a mother unfeasible, as well as her personal goals: “I would

like to be a mother, but I feel that I still do not have the capacity

to support a person, firstly, because I cannot support myself right

now, because I'm studying, it's also very hard to get a job right

now.”

***

Viviana, whose voice had already appeared previously,

continues with her story, turning the sacrifice into a burden.

Although she has support networks in her environment, her story

is emphatic in pointing out the responsibility that she must

assume and that corresponds to her as a mother and that also

brings with it a feeling of guilt that is recognized in weakness and

tiredness of it. Added to it are the voices of Adelita, professional,

divorced, housewife, mother of two children, whose appreciation

is that motherhood is a high level of exhaustion, which leads to

limitations in rest or self-care.

***

Lila, for her part, is aware that postponing motherhood until the

age of 43 precisely allowed her to release a burden on her youth.

That is, living a stage of his life fully, which a burden would not

have allowed her to experience: “the best decision I could have

made (……) I am going to take care of him as long as his body

lasts, I am educating him in my style (… …) I think that all

questions are in their moment.”

Perfect/imperfect motherhood and bad motherhood

Within the stories, the mandate of idealized motherhoods is

disregarded. The idea of imperfection also emerges, that is,

mothers who give their best, but who also make mistakes,

paradoxically in the aspiration of achieving those social

standards of perfect motherhood, which in personal terms

constitutes a plausible aspiration. In this same sense, the

negative results in the development of the child, individual

psychological disorders and social evils are due to poor maternal

practices, to not leading efficient motherhood. “He is the only

person (the son) who has been there, who makes me see those

things that I have as mistakes as a mother, I talk a lot with him

about all those things, that I am not perfect, that sometimes I

make mistakes, that whenever he makes me present or calls me,

this happens, I don't like that or things like that. It's beautiful, it's

beautiful to know that he will always be with you, of course in the

way you know how to raise him.” (Jennifer)

At the limit of the spectrum then the bad mother appears, one

who by decision or omission transgresses the mandate of

idealized motherhood, failing to make sacrifice and critically

reconsidering the idea of omnipotence and resigning burden.

These forms of mothering generate dissidence in the ways of

assuming this social place and are the object of stigmatization

and singling out.

***

Azucena, a health professional who lives in Atuntaqui, in the

province of Imbabura, married, mother of one son, active

participant in a feminist group that defends sexual and

reproductive rights, Catholic, economically independent, states:

“Motherhood ( …) is not how they portray it to us. I had my first

baby when I was 30 years old, already a professional, with a job,

with a stable partner, economic independence (...) problems

arose and the maternal situation is sometimes not as we believe

it or they make us believe it.”

DISCUSSION

The narratives of motherhood mentioned above present to

women a series of tensions through which they go through and

that have an effect on their decisions about the experience of

their sexuality and their reproductive possibilities, which at the

same time permeate care and attention practices, as well as

respect and/or violation of sexual and reproductive rights.

Specifically for the research that gives rise to this article, these

are issues that stress the care trajectories of the participants and

their decision to voluntarily terminate pregnancy, in a sanctioning

context and with still conservative regulations such as the

Ecuadorian one. Identifying these tensions is important because

Bedoya M/ Enfermería Investiga Vol. 8 No. 4 2024 (December - January)

it allows us to “de-essentialize” the hegemonic discourses that

sustain reified forms around sexual and reproductive decisions,

recognizing the nuances from women's experiences, with their

coexistences and contradictions.

The first tension that appears in the cultural mandate is the

dispossession of self. For Hubert, Mauss (19) and Swigart (20),

the dedication of the subject towards a sacred other implies a

moral adjustment or change, which, in the case of women in their

motherhood, is expressed in consecrating their sons and

daughters, making them subjects of veneration, worship and

privilege. The mother gives up her place, becomes an instrument

and motherhood becomes a sacrificial exercise, but also guilty

suffering. Sacrifice constitutes a divine blessing, which

constitutes the highest moral value and even the perfect

expression of one's own goodness (10), in permanent tension

with uncertainty and guilt due to the imminence of error or

deviation in the task.

Following Lagarde (9), this situation is amplified if we take into

account that the social reproduction activities of the mother-wife

are not recognized and she does not have financial

remuneration, even though her work is to maintain and preserve

the lives of others. Motherhoods become more complex,

because many times maternity is experienced without sufficient

support networks or when they are present, they are not part of

the work, in contexts where parenting and care are strongly

gendered issues and the presence of the mother is essential to

care of the children.

In many of the participants' stories, the mother is not the subject

of motherhood but rather its object. That is to say, the mother

woman is an instrument, a means of life and care for another

being, who is stripped and strips of herself. Lonzi (7) refers that

women have been trained to care for the body and spirit of their

son or daughter, in socialization processes in which obligation

and unconditional love are embodied as a univocal identity of

motherhood. From this perspective, motherhood is hardly

compatible with one's own aspirations, and self-sacrifice is

necessary to preserve the life of another, a divine gift that must

be accepted with resignation (21). Vivas (22) suggests that

beyond the biological dimension derived from the potential for

reproduction, motherhood has been consolidated in a social,

historical and cultural environment that shapes and sustains it

under parameters of self-denial and sacrifice, strongly fueled by

a morality of a religious order, whose reference image is the

Virgin Mary in her connotation as a mother and in her expression

of fertility and care.

The second tension has to do with the juxtaposition between

dispossession and omnipotence. Rosero (23) mentions the

existence of the criteria of a "good" and "bad" mother, generating

from there the ideology of the omnipotent mother. This model of

mother is the most preponderant, idealized and perfect, whose

care directed towards the child and family is unique and

unequivocal. Women make their desire to mother a historical

reference, in which they find their goal and meaning in life. That

is to say, the reason of giving everything for another seems to be

essential in the mother-child relationship, satisfying the most

intimate desires such as breastfeeding, caressing and providing

exceptional and privileged care.

Consequently, motherhood, while implying sacrifice and self-

emptying, is transformed into a claim to omnipotence. Self-denial

and consecration make women powerful in said role, but only in

said role (24-25). Therefore, when women express indifference

to the fact of having or not having children, this leads to the

indication of inability to carry out accomplish the task, and not to

freedom of decision. Even, as we saw previously, the participants

who express their ideological and militant affiliation with feminism

express their postponement of motherhood because they do not

feel prepared for such a magnified responsibility, in which not

only economic conditions come into play, but also others that

touch with the emotional and the moral aspects. In all of the

participants' stories, we found that the decision to abort, rather

than being based on a free and autonomous decision regarding

breastfeeding, responds to a postponement. In this sense, a

double burden is produced, because not only is the social

sanction experienced for the abortion decision, but also a self-

sanction is experienced for not yet achieving the expected

maternal competencies.

In this regard, the historical overview of the representations of

motherhood made by Rosero (23) is interesting, where he

explains that the notion of the omnipotent mother is associated

with the impact of her maternal activity on her result, the son or

daughter in such a way that any positive manifestation in this is

a product of the omnipotence of the mother to build the life of the

child. The postponement of motherhood is the response to the

magnitude of what it represents for women, that omnipotent path

from birth until a split occurs between mother and child, that

helplessness of the newborn that demands an omnipotent

goddess to their shelter (26).

In contrast, the bad mother arises, one whose role negatively

impacts the children. The mother, who has all the power to

determine the lives of her children, can play a deficient role, not

adjusted to expectations. The result of this is the imbalance in

the lives of the children, at least until they are able to fend for

themselves ( 2. 3). The denatured mother or bad mother is one

who does not know how to raise, is not loving and dedicated to

her children. She represents a figure of individuality, who decides

not to reproduce. She is subject to social sanction for not feeling

affection for her children, expressing confusion over motherhood

or expressing regret for her choice (27). For Ordóñez (28), bad

mothers are those who do not comply with the socially

constructed ideals of motherhood. They are absent, denatured

and detached women. They violate and attack the shared social

construction of the good mother.

The upbringing and care that mothering entails become

gendered activities, they are experienced in an ambivalence

between the deserving of social recognition, a strong demand

and its potential burden of frustration. Bogino (29) mentions that

motherhood entails physical effort and, in turn, invisible

psychological work, with high social costs for women. Mothers,

while being considered omnipotent and self-sacrificing, are

subjected to strict control regarding what should be, what is

expected of them. The label of “denaturalized mother” used to

name those mothers who do not fit the expected model (8). This

reinforces the idea of an essentialization of mothering, from

which leaks, cracks, or disruptions are not allowed, adding new

burdens of suffering. Faced with the myth of the woman-mother,

“bad mothers” include those who murder their children, those

who abuse and abandon them, but also those who abort or those

who decide not to be mothers.

The idealization of divine sacrifice and the pure act of love

generate a contrast with the experience of gestating, giving birth

and caring when, above all, they are carried out in solitude and

Bedoya M/ Enfermería Investiga  Vol. 8 No. 4 2024 (December - January) 
26 
 
with  recrimination,  generating  feelings  of  anxiety,  anger  or 
anguish that contrast and distort the expectation around what is 
recognized  as  the  ideal  of  motherhood  (11),  regardless  of  the 
level  of  freedom  and  autonomy  that  has  been  had  regarding 
pregnancy and the decision to be a mother. This indicates that 
the naturalization of motherhood is an artifice, which hides the 
unique experience of women and their agency in the construction 
of  their  motherhood (30), sustained  in the  idea of  motherhood 
associated  with  sacrifice  that  has  predominated  throughout 
history.  Paradoxically,  this  sacrifice  is  elevated  to  the  level  of 
supreme  value,  and  thereby  connected  to  a  compensatory 
perspective  of  omnipotence.  The  omnipotence  of  motherhood 
implies  meeting  social  standards  that  may  not  be  what  they 
expect for their lives, but that they assume as a form of social 
recognition that ends up reinforcing their sacrificial destiny. This 
mandate not only makes women responsible for the exercise of 
motherhood to be considered good mothers and not be judged 
as the opposite, but it also makes them omniresponsible for the 
life of the child, for their decisions, experiences, illnesses, virtues 
and  shades.  Experiencing  this  ambivalent  game  provokes 
contradictions in women that leads them to settle on the idealized 
statement of the good mother, even in cases where they interrupt 
a pregnancy in a decision that allows them to honor said ideal. 
That is, interrupting pregnancy is necessary due to the risk of not 
becoming the good mother one should be. 
CONCLUSIONS 
The idealized motherhood model reflects a firmly established and 
hegemonically  accepted  mandate,  which  does  not  necessarily 
operate  as  an  immovable  monolithic  model.  Dialogue  with 
women who have decided to voluntarily abort at some point in 
their lives in a context with important social and legal sanctions 
such as the Ecuadorian one has allowed us to understand how 
said  decision  interacts  with  the  ways  of  incorporating  the 
mandates  around  motherhood,  but  also  how  these  They  are 
reformulated  or  resignified  based  on  their  biographical 
trajectories.  However, it  is important to  note that  these  results 
may have  limitations given that  the study sample  had minimal 
variation, especially from the point of view of elements of social 
position  (education,  origin,  access  to  information,  religious 
practices), which could explain the saturation in the theme, which 
could vary if further explorations are carried out with women from 
opposite social positions. 
The meaning that motherhood has for women is fundamental in 
their decision to abort, to the extent that its social and cultural 
mandates  become  additional  pressure  to  sanction  and 
criminalize  their  decision  to  abort.  This  requires  proposing  a 
perspective of sexual and reproductive health rights that allows 
nurses,  and  other  health  actors,  recognize  these  complexities 
and  tensions  to  assume  their  care  task  from  a  guarantee 
perspective, putting women as the main focus. 
FINANCING SOURCES 
There were no sources of financing. 
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS 
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. 
 
REFERENCES 
 
1. Rodríguez  L.  Social  and  Cultural  Factors  Determinants  in  Health:  Culture  as  a  force  to  influence  changes  in  sexual  and 
reproductive health policies. In: III Congresso da Associação Latino Americana de  População Córdoba: ALAP; 2018. p  1-
22.Available in:https://www.ossyr.org.ar/pdf/bibliografia/2.6.pdf 
2.  López  Andy  G,  Analuisa  Jiménez  EI.  Public  policies  associated  with  sexual  and  reproductive  education  and  nursing 
contributions. Sick Investig, 2021;6(5):74-78. Available in:https://revistas.uta.edu.ec/erevista/index.php/enfi/article/view/1458. 
3.  Perrotta  Gabriela Viviana. Legal  termination of  pregnancy: public policy.  Rev. argent.  public  health,  2019  ;  10(39):  31-34. 
Available in:http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1853-810X2019000200031&lng=es. 
4.  Bruna D, Spindola T, Reicherte MR, Almeida RR, Costa R, Teixeira RS. Sexual behavior of young university students and care 
for sexual and reproductive health. Sick global 2020; 17(49). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/eglobal.17.1.261411 
5. Arias B, Torres B. Twenty years building collective health. The experience of the master's degree in collective health at the 
University  of  Antioquia.  Collective  Health  and  Public  Health:  are  we  talking  about  the same  thing?  2016;  71-94.Available 
in:http://www.doctoradosaludp.unal.edu.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Cuaderno-18.pdf 
6.  United Nations Human Rights. Sexual and reproductive health and rights. OHCHR and women's human rights and gender 
equality; 2022. Available in:https://www.ohchr.org/es/node/3447/sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights 
7.  Lonzi  C.  Let's  spit  on  Hegel.  Buenos  Aires:  Trafficker  of  dreams;  2018.  Available  in: 
https://traficantes.net/sites/default/files/pdfs/TDS_map52_Escupamos%20sobre%20Hegel_web.pdf  
8.  Sau  V.  The  emptiness  of  motherhood.  Foreword  by  Casilda  Rodríguez.  Madreselva  Publishing  House.  2013. 
Available:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-ZUQsI0dYx4cYR_5U_fvINjGODEA6LGw/edit  
9.  Lagarde M. The captivities of women: motherwives, nuns, whores, prisoners and crazy women Mexico: Autonomous University 
of  Mexico;  2005:  248-405.  Available  in:  https://desarmandolacultura.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/lagarde-marcela-los-
cautiverios-de-las-mujeres-scan.pdf  
10.  Rich A. We are born of women: motherhood as experience and institution Norton: Dream Traffickers; 2019. Dream Traffickers 
Editorial. First edition.https://traficantes.net/sites/default/files/pdfs/map54_Rich_web_2.pdf  
11.  Ministry  of  Public  Health.  National  Sexual  and  Reproductive  Health  Plan  2017  -  2021.  Quito,  Ecuador.  pp 
274https://ecuador.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/PLAN%20NACIONAL%20DE%20SS%20Y%20SR%202017-2021.pdf  
12.  Zaragocin Carvajal  S,  Cevallos Castells M, Falanga G, Arrazola  I,  Ruales G, Vera  V  et  al.  Mapping the criminalization of 
abortion  in  Ecuador.  Rev.  Bioethics  and  Law.  2018;(43):  109-125.  Available 
in:http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S188658872018000200009&lng=es. 

Bedoya M/ Enfermería Investiga  Vol. 8 No. 4 2024 (December - January) 
27 
 
13.  Sau-Ortega C. Contents of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Subject in the Undergraduate Nursing Curricula of Spanish 
Universities: A Cross-Sectional Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021; 18(21). DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111472. 
14.  Willsher  Kerre  A,  Kalpana  Goel.  Feminist  Research  Paradigms.  2017.  Available  at: 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319327025_FEMINIST_RESEARCH_PARADIGMS#fullTextFileContent 
15.  Buitrago Malaver L, Arias López BE. The contributions of the narrative biographical approach to the generation of knowledge 
in  Nursing.  Nursing  Index.  2018;  27(1-2):62-66.  Available  in:http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1132-
12962018000100013&lng=es. 
16.  Valencia, F. Body, narrative and citizenship. Life trajectories of people with HIV in the municipality of Girardot, Cundinamarca. 
Brazilian Journal of Development, 2019; 5(8): 12139–12157. DOI:https://doi.org/10.34117/bjdv5n8-064  
17.  Bertaux  D.  The  biographical  approach:  its  methodological  validity,  its  potential.  Sociological  record.  2011;  (1):  61-29. 
DOI:https://doi.org/10.22201/fcpys.24484938e.2011.56.29458  
18.  Declaration  of  Helsinki  of  the  World  Medical  Association  WMA  –  Ethical  principles  for  medical  research  involving  human 
subjects. March 2017. Available in:https://www.wma.net/es/policies-post/declaracion-de-helsinki-de-la-amm-principios-eticos-
para-las-investigaciones-medicas-en-seres-humanos/  
19.  Hubert H, Mauss M. Of the nature and function of sacrifice. Barcelona. WALDHUTER Publishing House; 2019, p. 220 
20.  Swigart J. Le mythe de la mauvaise mere. Paris. Editeur R. Laffont, 1990. p. 299 
21.  Verdenelli J. "Give it  your all": sacrifice,  profession and motherhood of tango and contemporary dancers in Buenos Aires. 
Research magazine in the field of art. 2022; 17(31):98-112. DOI:https://doi.org/10.14483/21450706.18701 
22.  Vivas, E. Disobedient mom. Captain Swing Books. 2019. p. 336 
23.  Rosero Andrade, Glenda. Motherhood: the story from the periphery. Index, contemporary art magazine, 2019; (8), 110-117. 
DOI:https://doi.org/10.26807/cav.v0i08.261  
24.  Estrada Pimentel M. Motherhood in history: duty, desire and simulacrum. Interchange Notebooks on Central America and the 
Caribbean, 2014;11(2):2014. Available in:https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/intercambio/article/view/16585/16094  
25.  Santa Maria D, Guilamo Ramos V, Jemmott LS, Derouin A, Villarruel A. Nurses on the Front Lines: Improving Adolescent 
Sexual and Reproductive Health Across Health Care Settings. The American journal of nursing. 2017; 117(1): 42-51. DOI: 
10.1097/01.NAJ.0000511566.12446.45. 
26.  Ojea  F.  The  maternal  omnipotence  of  the  goddess.  Plot  and  background:  culture  magazine.  2016;(40):  47-52.  Available 
in:https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=6095629 
27. Quiroz Lissell. “There is only one mother”: the invention of the models of the good/bad mother in Peru in the 19th and 20th 
centuries. Feminist research. 2020; 11(1):57-66.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/infe.63989  
28.  Ordóñez  M.  Dissident  motherhood  in  The  Giantess:  the  filicidal  'bad  mother'.  Synchrony.  2022;(81).  DOI: 
10.32870/sincronia.axxvi.n81 
29.  Bogino  Larrambebere,  Mercedes.  Maternities  in  tension.  Between  hegemonic  motherhood,  other  motherhoods  and  non-
motherhoods.  Feminist  Research.  2020.  11(1):  9-20.https://academica-
e.unavarra.es/bitstream/handle/2454/39100/Maternidades%20en%20tensi%c3%b3n.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y  
30.  Kohan  A.  Motherhood  in  question,  new  debates?  Rosario:  UNR  editor;  2019.  https://www.studocu.com/es-
ar/document/universidad-nacional-de-lujan/psicologia-evolutiva-ii/burin-cap2-pto4-la-maternidad-el-otro-trabajo-
invisible/14962771  
 
 