A Space for Motherhood? Contact Visits from the Perspectives of Mothers with Migration Experiences

When a child is placed in out-of-home care, parents must adapt their parenting to a unique situation governed by Child Welfare Services (CWS). Contact arrangements between parents and children are particularly important, as they provide the primary opportunity for parents to maintain a meaningful connection and participate in their children’s lives. This article explores how mothers with migration experiences navigate their motherhood when it is regulated by the CWS in Norway. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and a photo-elicitation task with eight birth mothers, the study sheds light on how they perceive and talk about staying connected with their children living in out-of-home care during contact visits. Three themes were identified through a narrative-inspired thematic analysis: (1) mothers’ active efforts to organise meaningful contact visits for their children; (2) their struggles to maintain family cohesion and belonging; and (3) the constraints they face in their emotional care work due to regulated and limited contact. These findings illustrate how contact visits function as an essential but also challenging space for motherhood. We argue that by recognising mothers’ perspectives, resources, and challenges during the limited and regulated contact visits, CWS can offer more culturally sensitive and supportive parental follow-up.