“But who takes care of the mom?”: The daily experiences of immigrant mothers navigating health in family life

Abstract

This study qualitatively explores US immigrant mothers' daily experiences navigating health in the context of the family budget and wider sociopolitical climate. We conducted semi-structured interviews from 9/2020-1/2021 in English and Spanish with 30 immigrant mothers of young children. Interviews were analyzed using both inductive and deductive analytic strategies. Five themes were identified:1) economic strain is persistent; 2) government support alleviated some economic strain but brought other problems; 3) mothers developed strategies drawing on community and creativity to mitigate economic strain; 4) racism and anti-immigrant sentiment harm maternal well-being and shape access to healthcare and social service; 5) mothers prioritized children's healthcare. The findings tie together structural vulnerability, immigration policy, and economic constraint, illuminating how these issues collide in daily life for mothers of young children. Further, each of these longstanding challenges were exacerbated by the dual crises of the pandemic and Trump administration policies. Moreover, the confluence of experiences was intensified by additional pressures at the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, and immigrant identity, extending work on structural vulnerability and slow violence. The complex mental gymnastics mothers enacted to ensure children and immediate family members had their needs met in the face of unique threats like deportation, often came at the expense of their own well-being. Solutions to these challenges require respectful discourse, equitable, immigrant-inclusive policy and practice changes at state, federal, and health systems levels.