Viviane Rakotoarivony

Photographer
 
Mother
Location: Madagascar
Nationality: Malagasy
Biography: Viviane RAKOTOARIVONY is a Malagasy photographer, born and living in the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo. She was a painting artist before becoming a photographer. She exhibited her photos for the first time at the Isar't gallery in... MORE
Private Story
Mother
Copyright Viviane Rakotoarivony 2024
Updated May 2022

My photographic project "mother" evokes the way women experience motherhood. In society, we congratulate a pregnant woman. Having a baby is always considered a "happy event". And yet, women do not always feel it as a blessing but sometimes as something that is imposed on them. In some regions of Madagascar, for example, girls are married when they are teenagers and by the time they are 14 or 15, they already have a child. These girl mothers are not mentally ready to raise children. Early marriages are also the effect of the precariousness of life of the Malagasy people. Indeed, according to the World Bank, the poverty rate (set at $1.90 per day) was 74.3% in 2019. Parents therefore favor boys when it comes to the schooling of children; the roles of girls and women are generally reduced to the perpetuation of offspring and the upkeep of their households. 

Madagascar being a Christian country, abortion is forbidden even in cases of rape or incest. 


Many of these women have psychological issues when they become mothers. They are overwhelmed, anxious or even depressed. They feel guilty afterwards and don't dare to talk about it for fear of being judged by those people around them. Because having a child is supposed to be a "blessing", it is impossible for some people to think that a mother can feel anything other than joy and expect her to play her role as a mother perfectly. In a maternity waiting room, I heard a woman say, "I don't understand these women who throw their babies away"; a woman who judges another woman. In my opinion, blaming doesn't solve anything because everyone experiences motherhood differently. These mothers feel misunderstood, they suffer in silence and do not know with whom to turn.


I was 20 years old when I had my son. It was more my husband's desire to have a baby than mine, and the labor was so painful that I vowed not to give birth afterwards. In addition, I had trouble accepting my changed body after the C-section. I didn't like my body and it took me several years to get rid of my complexes. That said, I love my child and have been caring for him for almost 17 years now even though the father abandoned us.


There is a lot to say about childbirth, including the fear of pain during labor, complications during and after delivery, the baby getting sick ...

In addition, more and more women are raising their children alone as fathers are abandoning their families for various reasons, but mostly because the family problems are too heavy for them.