Module 3 What Mothers Say About Stress

Identifying Issues

What are the factors and issues that many mothers identify as challenging?

There are stressful aspects to childcare for any parent. Research has identified some key stressors that affect mothers of children with a disability. Mothers find it important to learn about the top ten stressors for two main reasons:

  1. So you can identify what might fit your situation
  2. So you can start to work on how to reduce the impact of that factor in your own situation.

Here are the top 10 that push up the pressure gauge for a lot of mums. Read more about each issue by downloading a PDF of the fact sheet:

  1. Identified life supports
  2. Family life cycle
  3. Needs/experiences of children
  4. Paid work
  5. Sleep
  6. Challenging behaviour
  7. Child’s emotional wellbeing
  8. Mother’s empowerment around disability
  9. Service gaps
  10. Engagement in health promoting activities

What are the factors and issues that many mothers identify as challenging?

Here are the top 10 that push up the pressure gauge for a lot of mums. Read more about each issue by downloading a PDF of the fact sheet.

Here is a video that describes the 10 stressful factors in more detail:

It can be difficult to work out the difference between exhaustion, stress and a more serious issue affecting your mental health, and one for which you might seek medical or psychological assistance.

Entry last updated 24 February, 2020