The confrontation of the stigma experienced by women / mothers who use crack

Abstract

The study aimed to know how women who use crack cocaine experience their maternity and face the stigmas established by society. A participant observation was carried out with five women, semi-structured interviews and field diary construction, cultural categories and data treated from Geertz’s Interpretativism. It was noticed how much the participants face difficulties to raise their children, mainly because of the prejudice that they suffer, how difficult is to deal with maternity and the use of crack at the same time. These women suffer from social exclusion and marginalization, often resulting in difficulties in accessing health services.