5197.0: Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 3:00 PM

Abstract #10703

Patterns of survival for Bosnian rural mothers during the war and post-war period

Cheryl Lee Robertson, RN, MPH, PHD, School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, 6-101 WDH, 308 Harvard Street, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0342, 612-624-9600, robe0192@tc.umn.edu

The specific aim of this focused ethnographic study is to understand the patterns of survival for rural mothers during the Bosnian war and the post-war period. The study describes the experience of fourteen relocated rural Muslim mothers living in a Sarajevo peri-urban area. The participants were rural women who lived with their families in eastern Bosnia before the area was ethnically cleansed. Traditional ethnographic methods were used in the study, including participant observation, collection of relevant documents and open-ended interviews with mothers. Data were collected during four visits to the Sarajevo area between 1996 and 1999. Thirteen categories that described the women's experiences emerged during data analysis. The women's lives were characterized by continuous movement. They discussed the experience of giving birth and raising children during the war and their efforts to ensure their children's survival and maintain family integrity. After the war ended many of the women lived in ongoing ambiguity and uncertainty as they waited to hear about the fate of their men who had disappeared. All of the women suffered multiple losses, both ambiguous and concrete. They lost their communities, their homes, and their way of life; many lost their husbands; they all lost extended family. They lost their state, and they lost their belief in a fair and just world. Over time, the women's realization that they were really on their own, that they were not going to be rescued, may have contributed to their decisions to shape their own future.

Learning Objectives: 1. At the end of this session participants will understand how war is a profound public health problem that affects the health of mothers. 2. At the end of this session participants will identify five patterns of survival mothers used to support family integrity during the war. 3. At the end of this session participants will identify three ways that women lived with ambiguous loss

Keywords: Maternal Health, Refugees

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

The 128th Annual Meeting of APHA