Motherhood in a Time of Terror: Subjective Experiences and Responses of Israeli Mothers

Abstract

The aim of the study was to explore the subjective experience of being a mother in an extreme period of terror and uncertainty. Eleven Israeli mothers who had one to three children, ranging in age from 8 months to 12 years, participated in a focus group. A content analysis revealed five main concerns: physical protection, emotional protection, transmission of ideology, creation of normalcy and routine, and the question of what will happen to the children if the mothers are killed in a terror attack. The discussion examines the uniqueness and similarities of the findings to other theoretical and empirical works on motherhood.