Immigrant Mothers' Experiences With Child Soothing in Vancouver, Canada: 'I Just Want to Be a Good Mom'

Parental soothing resources can increase parents' confidence in practicing safe soothing techniques. However, there is a dearth of resources that help immigrant parents gain confidence. Understanding the soothing experiences of immigrant mothers can provide important insight into how to develop culturally sensitive soothing resources for them. In this study, we addressed the question, 'What are immigrant mothers' experiences with child soothing in Vancouver, Canada?'

We used tenets of post-structural feminist theory and feminist methodologies to inform our approach and conducted three focus groups with 23 mothers who had at least one child aged 0-5 years.

Two discourses were identified through a critical discourse analysis: (a) feminising care: gendered mothering ideals can isolate immigrant mothers and (b) cultural silencing: dominant cultural ideals for soothing can subjugate non-conformative practices.

Societal pressures on women to soothe children can elicit feelings of isolation, sadness and concern for immigrant mothers, who can lack social supports and may not feel capable of subscribing to culturally idealised practices. Findings can be used to inform the cultural competency of injury prevention resource development to address unique cultural and gender-sensitive needs of immigrant mothers.