Historias de vida sobre ser madres y padres de hijos con discapacidad en un contexto de pobreza rural

Abstract

This study arises from the need to get closer to the reality that the family lives in the context of disability, that perhaps no one will be able to understand it if we do not open the door to see what happens inside and try to understand and value their derived experiences of disability. Therefore, the general objective was to reconstruct the life story of being the mother and father of a child with a disability in a context of rural poverty. A qualitative design based on the life history method is proposed. The selected sample is two families with a child under three years of age diagnosed with a disability who live in rural areas of the Salitre canton. Hence, the instrument to collect information from both mothers and fathers was the in-depth narrative interview based on four main categories: pregnancy, disability, upbringing, and rural context. The interviews were conducted by video call due to the context of the Covid 19 pandemic. The results reflect that the life history of each family is unique and surrounded by peculiarities. The experience of disability experienced by mothers and fathers has a high emotional, social, economic, and contextual burden. The special characteristics of your child make families actively involved in parenting, which is related to the provision of basic needs, the incessant search for timely access to services, and expectations about his future. In addition, the rural environment presents multiple vulnerabilities, which make families and their children with disabilities even more vulnerable. Finally, these families are learning, adapting, and understanding that disability makes their child a special being and they show it with their acceptance and love.