Being a Deaf Mother: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis exploration of the experiences of deaf parents with hearing children.

Abstract

This study is an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) into deaf individuals' experiences of parenting hearing children. The experience of becoming a new parent alone can cause initial concerns however having a disability can cause parents to experience additional problems. Previous literature focuses on deafness in relation to child deafness and how this may impact upon their hearing parents' parental experiences. It becomes apparent that there is a gap in the body of knowledge concerning deaf parents with hearing children. There is little commentary regarding their overall experiences of parenthood and specifically in relation to support received and the impact of such support. Through the use of IPA, this study provides an insight into the lived experiences of deaf individuals and how these experiences shape their understanding. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with 3 deaf mothers, with a BSL interpreter present to accurately interpret the conversation. Through extensive analysis, three main themes were identified as being pertinent to deaf parents: Identity, Communication and Support. This thesis will detail each main theme with evidence to demonstrate the importance of each to deaf mothers within this study. Findings from this study should be considered to gain an understanding of the individual challenges experienced by deaf parents in order to prompt positive change. Key Words: Deaf parents, hearing children, parenthood, experience, support, lived experience, interpretative phenomenological enquiry.